Insane DJI Osmo Pocket Hustle: $100K Video Business with a Cheap Camera

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Vipul Bindra (00:04):
All right, justin, thank you for coming.
I really appreciate it.
As you know, we were talkingabout the for years.
I wanted to start the podcastand the purpose was just I want
to have conversations that, a, Ienjoy, because I can obviously
talk my head off about videoproduction, and I want to talk
to other people who care aboutthe same things I care about,
and then, b, I would hope theaudience gets something out of

(00:28):
this that you know, these arethe conversations I wish I could
have heard when I was startingout, because there may be some
entertainment, some goldennuggets in there that hopefully
somebody could benefit fromRight, so, thank you again, like
I said, for coming.
Thank you, and so let's startwith.
I just want to know what do youdo, man?
I think you do some cool thingswith video.

Justin Markwalter (00:50):
It's a wide yeah, I know Wide array of
things.
My wife, friends, family, Ifeel like sometimes they don't
know what I do.
I just tell them I'm a cameraoperator, I shoot photos, I
shoot videos.
My buddy Dalton says, if it'slegal he'll shoot it From
helicopters to differentcountries.

(01:10):
Fiji sleeping in the dirt and alittle metal hut and baking
until 2 in the morning and thehut finally cooled off because
it sat in the sun and cooked Tohere, kissimmee Motorsports or
Kissimmee Orlando, all over theplace.

so wow, tell me more about the Fiji thing.
That's.

You got me already curious, so I want to
know so I go to a church inRockledge, florida, and they
were going on a missions tripand they pretty much was like
hey, if anyone wants to go, knowthat it'll be X amount of
dollars.
We would love people to go.
And I shoot for the church timeto time and I was just thinking
nobody.

(01:51):
There's nobody in the churchthat documents anything.
They say all these cool thingsand you'll see like some cell
phone photos and pretty muchgarbage stuff that they show to
the people and there's no storyto it.
So I went after the service andI was like hey, brad, if you're
cool with it, I would beinterested in going.
Know that I don't know anydetails other than, obviously,

(02:13):
what you just told us.
And he's like listen, if youwant to go, I would love for you
to go.
And I was hoping you were goingto come up and ask me.
So, long story short, thechurch paid for me to go.
I had no idea what I wasgetting into.
When you see Fiji I wouldimagine anyone else that sees
Fiji you think beautiful island,beautiful blue waters,

(02:34):
beautiful beaches, beautifulwomen, everything.
Well, that was far from that.
When you land in Fiji, it'sbeautiful there, but where we
were was the opposite end,pretty much the middle of
nowhere.
These people lived in huts,shanties, shacks, whatever you
want to call them like littlepieces of cardboard.

(02:55):
It was pretty much like ahomeless camp, and church wanted
me to document it.
I thought we were staying in ahotel.
I was far off from that.
The food was insane, but Iactually don't even know what I
was eating.
It was a whole bunch ofdifferent animals and they
literally just chopped stuff upwith machetes, cooked it and
they're like yo, here you go.
I'm like I'm pretty surethere's bones and stuff in that

(03:18):
and, yes, every bite you wouldchew, get bones, spit the bone
out and you just kind of took itfor what it was.
And luckily, the family that Istayed with they gave up their
children's room and they left mea mattress.
Like I don't know, it might aswell not even been a mattress.
I felt like I was just sleepingon hard concrete for two weeks,
uh.

(03:39):
But I shot a bunch of stuff.
I showed a really cool story.
The overall video ended upbeing like seven minutes, had
some people in the church crying, tearing up and uh to me that's
what I wanted to accomplish andthey got to see what the church
was doing and, uh, what thatvillage was trying to do, and I
don't want to say I'm gettingchoked up, but it was a really
cool like opportunity for me tobe able to show that to everyone

(04:01):
that donates or tithes money tocertain things like this.
Uh, I shot everything on a7s3.

I brought a small audio stuff and just captured
what I could and it was anawesome experience I think
that's incredible and, like youknow you, getting choked up is
is incredible because that's thepower of video.
Right, you were there,experiencing it, but you were
able to, with this littleequipment, capture those
emotions.
That people up like down herecan now feel those emotions,

(04:34):
right, they can feel that storyand that can show them, like you
said, what the church is doing.
So I think the power of videois just incredible.
Now, what would you say?
Would you say that's a positiveexperience for you Because
obviously there's hardship,right?
But on the other end, you cameback with something incredible.

Absolutely.
It was very valuable andeye-opening to me.
I didn't like you see, likeNational Geographic and like
people living like this, but toactually see it and live it and
just be part of it.
And knowing that these peoplelive like this day to day, like
I'm going home in two weeks,these people are living like
this forever.
It was pretty crazy.

(05:12):
There was one little scenewhere there's a kid like eating
who knows what off this plate.
He's sitting all by himself.
Maybe two and a half three,I've got a four year old, so it
just like I hit home knowingthat I have a four-year-old that
gets whatever he wants, anyanything, food wise, whatever he
.
if I serve him something, hedoesn't like it, I'm cooking him

(05:35):
something else because I canthis little kid he's eating when
he can practically it lookedlike garbage and he's just
having the best time.
He even smiles, like in thethings he saw the camera or
whatever and he just got excitedLike, ooh, someone's paying
attention, uh, but yeah, veryeyeopening.
And I every night I take my bedor I go to bed and like, holy
cow, this is the best thing everand I've never slept better in

(05:58):
my life.
When I got home and justknowing that I have it so good
and compared to like super richpeople and everything like that,
like knowing that I got a car,ac, a hot shower, that was wild.

There's no showers or anything like that, probably
no plumbing.

Right, yeah, it was literally a kiddie pool
that had water in it from Idon't know where it was freezing
, and then you got like a littlecup and you poured it on
yourself to wash yourself.
That had water in it from Idon't know where it was freezing
, and then you got like a littlecup and you poured it on
yourself to wash yourself.
Uh, and that people just walkby, they're just like hanging
out, like living their life, andlike yo, somebody's taking a

(06:37):
shower, like whatever it is whatit is like we're all living,
and uh, yeah, anyway, I'mgetting off on a tangent, but uh
, it's, it was a reallyeye-opening experience and I'm
very thankful that I got to be apart of that and that's, I got
to be a part of that because I'minto cameras and I love what I
do more than anything and, uh, Ihope to keep experiencing more

(07:00):
things like that no, that's,that's that's incredible man.

Um, like I said, I think, uh, we feel very, you
know, living in a country likeamerica, like we, we were in the
us.
You know, we are veryprivileged.
Like I have two daughters, fourand eight, and they, you know,
like for them, like I'll havesomething really delicious in
front of them and they may justbe like I don't feel like eating
it, right, yeah, and then tosee the contrast that you saw,

(07:25):
which is like where they would,that kid would probably, you
know, would love to havewhatever my kid just refused
because, but again, thecircumstances are different and,
um, I don't know, uh, I don'tknow.
It just makes me feel verywonderful that we are where we
are, but at the same time, Ifeel like I don't know, I feel
like everyone should have whatwe have and I don't know how to

(07:47):
make that happen.
Obviously, it's not within mypower.

Yeah.

I'm passionate about video, like you, so all I
can do is share the stories.
Right, that's the impact Atleast I can make.
I don't think I could go make abigger impact.
Maybe one a bigger impact, um,maybe one day, you know, maybe
one day, yeah, you never know,but uh.
But I'm so glad you're heresharing this story, because

(08:10):
there is this side to, tofilmmaking, where you know,
obviously we all love camerasand filmmaking and, and you know
, audio or whatever we getintrigued by.
But there's the other side of it, which is far more important,
which is stories yeah and that'sthe end goal is the
storytelling, because that iswhat captures people like
nothing else.
You know, a video can makepeople cry, it can make them

(08:32):
laugh, it can smile.
There's very few other mediumsthat can do that.

Yeah, the emotions.

And you know, considering how easy it is to
make it nowadays, with everyonewalking around with a cell phone
, I think you know we live inwonderful times, it's the way I
see it right, and I feel likeit's only getting better.
Yeah, and it's keep going tobetter, because you know, guess
what, probably you know.
I don't know.
I'm just imagining, 20 yearslater, phones that look better

(09:03):
than current day.
You know a red and Alexis, orwhatever right, yeah, absolutely
than current day you know, uh,red and alexas, or whatever
right, this is the power ofevery single person that's gonna
be in their pocket.
Yeah, wow.
So what got you into this wholecamera thing and I don't know,
like I grew up riding bmx.

Uh, when I was doing that, uh, yeah, my
phone didn't even have a camerawhen I was first doing that.
And then obviously, like youget a flip phone and it's got a
little dinky camera on there andessentially we had nothing to
capture any of that.
And I grew up and I wastraveling from state to state

(09:37):
riding dirt, going down dirtHills, riding gigantic dirt
jumps, and I and I was like man,this would be cool to capture,
like what if, when I'm older, Iwant to show my kids this, and
kind of hard to believe that Iwas thinking that far in the
future at the time.
But I ended up getting a cameraand I started shooting.
I had no idea like shootingauto whatever, whatever came out

(09:58):
of that camera I was getting,but it was way better than
anything that my cell phonewould capture.
So that just turned into like ahobby, a passion, and I
absolutely loved it and all mybuddies were like this is the
coolest thing ever.
Then, like myspace became athing, that's yo, I need a new
profile picture and like thingslike that.
Yeah, so, uh, that was a thingand I just going.

(10:24):
And then I think I was like 21.
I was like man, I need to growup, I need to get a real job.
Like cameras aren't paying meto do anything and at this time
I had kind of learned like thebasics of shooting manual and
stuff like that.
But I was like not getting paid.
I get a job sales job, I don'tknow how much, maybe a year or
two longer, no-transcript.

(11:12):
Hey, you're really terrible atwhat you do.
And I was like you're correct,let me shoot photos for you or
something like that.
And so I ended up shootingphotos of all the inventory of
the store.
This was probably 15 years agoand that turned into essentially
where I'm at now.
I shoot for his dealership, Ishoot for another dealership.
At one point I had three, thenCOVID came, it stopped

(11:32):
production, so that kind ofmessed everything up for a while
.
It went back down to one andthen I was like man, I'm
shooting all these dealershipsand I was like triple dipping.
I was shooting them all in oneday two hours at one store, two
hours with another two hours atone store, two hours with
another two hours at anotherstore.
I'd take all that stuff andthen I'd go home and edit it and
I'd have it up like the nextday.
They loved it, making killermoney.

(11:55):
At that point, uh, with COVIDruining it, I was like man, I
got to kind of outsource.
I started posting more onsocial media and people were
like, hey, dude, uh, will you,will you shoot for us, or will
you create this for us, or comeshoot my family or whatever?
Photos, video.
And I was like, yeah, sure.
And then I was like I think Ican really make something here
and I just started pushing itand pushing it and pushing it,

(12:15):
posting it, telling my friendslike, hey, if you need something
, I got you.
And uh, 15 years later, I'mmaking roughly a hundred grand,
a little bit over that.
And I work five days a week andI'm absolutely loving every
single day I go to work.
All my retainer clients that Ido work for it's the best day
ever going to work.
I don't know what I'm going todo and it's.

(12:37):
It's different and it's fun.
And I can't think of a daywhere I was like man, this job
sucks.
I love every minute of it.
And I will say the downside tothis is now, when I am off work,
I want to spend more time withmy family, spend more time with
my kid, and so my kind of likethe passion to just go out and

(12:58):
shoot myself, uh, it's kind ofgone down, knowing that I don't
want to touch my camera, I don'twant to be in my office Like
this setup that you have here isincredible.
Having something like thismaybe would push me to doing it,
but again, I'm still away frommy family, even though I'm one
door away.
Yeah, so yeah, but anyway,that's how I got started into it

(13:18):
and I love doing it.
I love picking up extra gigs.
I love working with new people.
I love absorbing.
I love doing it.
I love picking up extra gigs.
I love working with new people.
I love absorbing.
I love watching how otherpeople do their job.
I'm like oh, that's weird, Inever thought of doing it like
that, and just the whole jobit's just.
It's different every day and Ithink anyone that's ever touched
a camera.
I hope that they can get tosome sort of level, to where

(13:43):
they love it like I love it andyou obviously love it.

Yeah, I was gonna say, I live and breathe the
video.

Yeah, I was gonna say you guys can't see
this garage, but his garage isinsane, along with his um
massive truck full of incredible.
I feel like you got a bnh outthere probably.
I feel like how I was gonna say, that is a serious truck.

But you know, I want to bring it back, though.
I think what you said isincredible and you will find how
many people I've met over theyears.
This is a very common threadand I find an outsider, because
I didn't start like that but,like so many people, started in
video because they just werepassionate about skateboarding
or BMX or some kind of sport,and all they wanted to do was

(14:31):
just share that with the rest ofthe world or their buddies or
whoever, and that got themsomehow into video.
So they weren't even lookingfor video, they were just doing
what they were just passionateabout.
So you have a very similarstory to a lot of creators
actually out there, and that'sincredible that that little
journey got you to here, whereyou're technically successful.
You're making six figures,which, again, I don't think it's
that important, but that's whatpeople care about when they're

(14:52):
starting out right.

That's one of the reasons I mentioned that
Exactly, yeah.

So because to two people that is important.
So you're making six figures.
You're independent, you havetime to spend with your family.
You, you have time to spendwith your family, you're
shooting cool things, but you'resomewhat independent, you know,
as if you don't have a boss,right?

Which is incredible.
I mean, that is the Americandream, isn't it?
Yeah?

So that's crazy, that it starts from a little you
know, passion or your love forBMX that leads to a life like
this.

Yeah, no 100% .
And if I had not done that whenI was younger, I don't know if
I would have done this now.
And it's kind of crazy becauseI just got a reminder.
Are you familiar with PhotoBucket by chance, Do you know?

what that is Like a stock photo, right?
Is that what I'm thinking, oram I wrong?

Photo Bucket was like I almost want to say
like kind of like a Dropbox butway back in the day you would
upload your photos to that andthat's where you could store
them, and then you could showpeople and people can see your
photo bucket and stuff like that.
And I just got like a reminder,like hey, your photo, your
photo buckets about to bedeleted unless you'd like to pay
X amount of dollars.
Like dude, I forgot I had thatand then I went on it and I
found some gyms.
It's like, oh wait, I cannotbelieve these are still here old

(16:00):
photos in my phone, uh.
And yeah, that that's anothertimely thing.
I know some of you willprobably know what I'm talking
about, especially if you're aphoto guy back in the day yeah,
that that's incredible, though.

So you know, like that, you've been creating
content this long, and again weseems like we've been in.
You've been in this area the 15years that you're saying born
and raised.
That's what I'm saying, andI've been here since 2010 and
we've somehow didn't cross pathsuntil what?
Uh, at least physically, I sayin person until david came along
and started doing these meetups?

(16:31):
yeah david, and and that'sincredible, you know, like that
we're in the same town creatingcontent, and our paths didn't
cross until another filmmakeryou know started doing these
meetups and it was like, oh wow,this is incredible that you
know you've been on this journey, I've been on this journey and
we're somehow in the same towncreating content and just trying
to be independent, you knowthat's that's my goal.

(16:52):
Um is um.
You know, we talked a littlebit, but, like I was just always
passionate about video, but Ijust didn't know.
And again, silly me now, I wasalways into youtube, I should
have started the channel, butforget that.
I was just like cameras andtechnology and all that, but I
had to have a job on the sideright.
Because, that's how you paybills and then eventually one

(17:15):
day you just go.
Okay, I got to follow mypassion and it was the best
decision ever because of whathappened, right.
But that leap of faith wasreally hard to take, because
then you get comfortable, right,you're like at least for me.

I was like, oh, that's no insurance, right,
I've got kid.

At that point I'm like crap do I want to do?
I want to just leave everythingbehind and start this
production thing.
And then you've all thesevoices around you're like oh
you're, I don't think you'rethis not real job.
You're not gonna make enough,or that was the biggest pushback
from, like family and stuff.

Uh, they're pretty much saying like listen,
you can't do that, like you'renot gonna make it.
And at the time I was making Iwas like two grand a month.
But when I was 21, 22 and I wasworking in a couple days a week
actually I think it was onlytwo the rest of those days I was
going out doing stuff, havingfun with my friends or going
riding bikes or doing whatever Iwanted, and then it was like

(18:07):
man, I can make more money if Ijust applied myself and worked
Monday, tuesday, thursday,saturday, sunday, if I really
wanted to, and then it just tookoff.
And now I've got three retainerclients, four retainer clients,
and I pick up side gigs.
That's how I actually met Davidwas through another person that

(18:31):
hires guys, and we ended upcrossing paths, working together
on the same set.
And then our buddy, jd.
He's like, hey, you should goto this video maker meetup thing
.
And that's when I went to thefirst one with David and I met
all these other guys like wow,this is really cool.
There's other people out therethat are into this Like I am.

(18:52):
I didn't know anybody at thetime, just you should just see
your YouTube guys.
And yeah, like are you?
And I was like this is thecoolest thing I could go to and
listen to people just talk aboutcameras and something that I
love more than anything.

Exactly, and for me it's like, again, it's the
information.
The problem in this field, atleast I found, is there's too
much noise.
Right, there's so many peoplewho don't know what they're
talking about talking about it,and then the people who are
successful, who have theknowledge, are happy to talk
about it, but you need tosomehow separate the noise from

(19:31):
this important information thatyou wish you could have and you
know, because I'd rather learnfrom people who've already been
where I want to be.

That's what I'm trying to do.

Yeah, exactly, then be around.
You know people.
What I'm saying is I don't wantto like if somebody is like, oh
, this is how you get asuccessful business, but they've
never had a successful business, I'm like, and they may be
right, but I'm like do I want towaste a year of my life
experimenting, or do I want toalready talk to somebody who's
like hey, I built threebusinesses, I got X amount of
revenue, I sold the business forwhatever and I'm like okay,

(20:02):
please tell me right, and thatwas my idea.
It's like to meet people likeyou and I'm like I wish I had
this conversation, you know, Idon't know eight years ago and
maybe I would have appliedmyself better, I would have quit
earlier and I would havehopefully left that miserable
job yeah, no, absolutely yeahyeah, and so hopefully somebody
gets even a little bit out ofthis, but that's exactly what
I'm talking about.
I'm really glad we're talkingabout yeah, exactly because this

(20:23):
is this, but that's exactlywhat I'm talking about, man, I'm
really glad we're talking aboutthis.
Yeah, exactly Because this iswhat it's about.
It's about, you know, doingthat American dream, which is
freedom, you know, which isbecause, again, literally my
last podcast we talked about thesame thing, like how we're
trained to be worker bees, andthough the American you know

(20:44):
principle is of, you know,entrepreneurship and freedom,
but I feel like our schools arejust trying to put us in jobs
100%.
So we need to fight that and weneed to get out and be
Americans, be you know, beindependent and be our own
bosses.
And video is an incredible, youknow.
Yeah, I would say Avenue avenue.

(21:05):
If you're passionate about it.
I wouldn't go into this just tomake money.

You could, then it'll be a miserable life
because you have to love, I wasgonna say I think you'd be
miserable doing it, because atthat point it's now just a job.
It's not something you loveexactly and anyone can go do a
job that you don't love, exactlythen it becomes the same thing.
You see the other thing.

But yeah, if you're passionate about it and
you love creating or tellingstories or whatever, you can
make money.
Because the other common threadis and tell me if you all these
people they've met, you'veheard it where it's like oh I
don't, I love this, I want to dothis, but I don't know how to
make you know the hypotheticalsix figures or whatever that I
want to make.

Yeah, no, that does happen.
Uh, you do hear people talkingabout it and sometimes it's also
hard to tell people like, oh,we'll go do this, but because it
worked for me doesn't mean it'sgoing to work for them, and
unfortunately that's, uh, Iwould say, something hard for
some people to swallow becausethey see what I'm doing Like
dude, that's easy, anyone can dothat.
Like, you're right, and I gotlucky.

(22:02):
I got in the position to whereI am doing it.
You go try it.
Yeah, one of the buddies that'sbeen to some of the meetings.
He's trying to do it.
I've been trying to help him doit.
It's just he's just the peoplethat he's, I guess, going after
aren't biting just yet.
However, he did just land apretty cool retainer client that
I put them on.
Well, they came to me and I waslike I can't.

(22:25):
I'm booked Monday throughFriday.
I don't want to take any morework on.
My work-to-life ratio isliterally perfect.
But I got a buddy and I wouldnot have met that buddy if it
wasn't for this network stuff.
That's awesome, and so nowwe're good.
He's actually worked for you.

I saw.

Emmanuel, which one?

Torres, I think you.
I saw, really I saw, uh,emmanuel, um which one?
Taurus, I think taurus, yeah,oh, wow, I'm gonna have a pod on
the podcast, uh, in a few weeks, so that's pretty exciting yeah
, if you mention that, he'llprobably bring it up.

He was just in colorado with them, like he's
incredible from what he's toldme he's loving it and, knowing
that, the person that he'sworking for now uh, what I know
of them and how much fun theyseem, the fact that they got
linked up I'm super excited forthem.
I actually almost quit one of myretainers to go work for this
person, but I was like no,everything's perfect right now.

(23:13):
I don't want to mess anythingup.
Hey, emmanuel, meet this guy.
Now they're together.
I know he moved from I think itwas Lakeland, over here, not
really knowing a whole lot ofpeople, and I was like dude.
I was like I'll help you out,I'll send you whatever I can.
If I can't take it, it's goingto you.
And he seems to be doingabsolutely killing it and I'm

(23:35):
loving that for him.

That's awesome and that's really good.
Great of you and power ofnetworking yeah and this is
power of giving.
Um, like I've said this I feellike I'm repeating myself so
much, but I've said this so muchever since I started telling
people what I was doing that wasgetting me success, I started
getting more success, yeah, sofind people who are like,
willing to give, always get itback.

(23:58):
It's never you.
You need to get.
If anyone's listening and if Ican even help one person need to
get out of this mindset of oh,what if they'll take my client
or they'll steal some money ofme or some job from me.
I'm telling you.

There's enough of it for all of us.

There is.
Everyone needs a business.
Sorry, every business needs avideo.
Video is so much work out there, but the thing is it's a
mindset change.
You've got to learn to give youand, but the thing is that it's
a mindset change.
You got to learn to give.
You got to learn to share whatyou know and then guess what
You'll notice, most people aregreat on the other side and
they'll be happy to share back.

(24:32):
So so this story is incredible,where you guys met through this
networking and you're like hey,I my plate's full, but here's
here, let me help you get this.
Returner client.

So you can now get where I am.

And that's what it's about.
And I'm telling you uh, in myexperience it'll come back in
some way or the other that you,you know eventually, and that I
think that's that's what's whatthat's about.

I don't know I love it.
Man, one day he'll be sendingme job exactly and or hey, I
need, I need a second shooter,and even if he doesn't, it is
what it is.
I'm happy that he got it versusjust some random guy that we
both don't know, and I know thatthe client is now going to be
happy because they're withEmmanuel.

Somebody we know is going to do a great job.
Yeah, that's perfect.
Yeah, that's perfect.
Yeah, that's amazing, man, it'sthe things that I didn't even
know Like we met and I'm.
I'm like, oh, I didn't know,like I know emmanuel, but I
didn't know that you got him aclient, so that's incredible.

I took him to vegas, like a couple times on a
I just I saw that you shared aphoto, because I remember you
saying something like you don'treally share a whole lot on your
instagram, I need to.
And so I went and looked andthen I was like, oh, I was like
there's my homie.
I was like, check that out.
And so, yeah, dude, I have astory to tell you.

I don't know if he's going to like Mr.
My first experience with him iscrazy.
So I had this client a year ortwo ago.
We were doing their events likeevery quarter or whatever, and
I had a photographer, a greatguy, nothing against it.
But you know he was not in thebudget.
So I was looking for a littleless money but same qualities.
And obviously, through David'snetworking, I had met Emmanuel.

(26:01):
So I was like, hey look, I'lltake you to Vegas.
Food is provided, hotel isprovided.
This is the rate.
You know, I don't think it's abad rate, but it's not like
really really high either.

Yeah.

All I want is you to just take some photos you
know it's an event Make themlook good.
And he was supposed to come tomy home to save on parking at
the airport, so we were gonnaride to the to the airport
together, and now here comestime to leave and there's no

(26:33):
emmanuel.
So I'm calling and then thengoing to voicemail and I called
the other emmanuel because wehad, uh emmanuel, uh galagos, a
guy who goesos sorry for thewrong pronunciation, but he was
going to come, you know, to it.
So I'm calling him and was likehey, do you know where Emmanuel
is?
He's like I'm at the airport.
I meant the other Emmanuel notyou, so he's like I don't know.

(26:56):
I'm like this is because youknow I can't video.
Sure I can replace it for theguy.
I'm like I can't, I don't havephoto equipment on me, I'm
bringing all the video equipment.
He's bringing the photoequipment.
Yeah, that's how the deal is.
Yeah yeah I'm like I can't justreplace him on like like a video
guy, I could at least replace.
So anyway, I'm like panicking,so it's up 30 minutes or later.
I'm like, okay, like we'rewaiting.
I'm like, okay, we don't wantto miss our flight, so we're

(27:18):
like we gotta go, so now we'redriving to the airport I'm
panicking, I'm like where areyou?
So he freaking messaged.
At least he was honest, he wasgreat.
He's like dude, I justoverslept or whatever.

Oh I don't know.

So I'm like, hey, I don't care show up to the, to
the airport, like now I'd anywayit was, it was hilarious, so so
, and then we got.
I was like, okay, maybe he'llbe there, so we check our bags
and he's not like this anymore,guys.

No, no, no, he's great he's.
I said I rehired him, sothere's a positive end to the
story.

But no, and then what was it?
So, yeah, no, now we're on theplane and he's still not there.
He's like, obviously, he'ssaying I'm on his way, I'm with
the airport and security linesare crazy, obviously Of course
TSA pre-check my goodness pointis now we're on the plane right
and there's no choice and I'mlike, slowly and people can see,

(28:07):
my heart is like seeing, I'mlike crap, this and this is a
good client, so I can't justscrew them over like I have to,
I'm gonna, I'm gonna deliverwhat I promised, whatever I
would have had to do at thatpoint.
But anyway, last person in theplane walking finally towards
that, I was like, oh, thankgoodness, you had no idea the
relief that sat in Assas' face.

(28:29):
But again, not to go to thepause, this is a crazy story.
But he delivered.
The photos were awesome andwhat I liked about him was he
was up front.
He was like hey, this is not anormal thing, this is just a
one-off.
It happens, and I'm like youknow it's okay and the good
thing is I took him to Vegas.
I still give him a hard timeBecause the next time he went I
was like okay, so for you, yougot to come 30 minutes earlier

(28:51):
than everyone.

So we know you'll be there.
He's like you're never going tolet this go.

I'm like no and now.
The photos were incredible andto me what mattered was the
client loved the photos.

That's what matters.

And then he was fun to hang out with outside of
work.
You know, and I've hired him abunch of times after that, I
think just this past year we didlike an event.
He did a cam op for me, so,which is funny because you know
we also, and that's a mistake ofme.

I then pigeonholed him in my brain as a
photographer right.

So I've hired him a bunch of times and I forget
that.

No, he can do cam op too.

He does some good stuff too so I needed a cam op
for like a live event orwhatever, and that's where this
last year he helped me.

So that was our first gig together was a
live event.

That's awesome, so yeah so I was like this is I
gotta stop doing that for peoplelike pigeonholing him to what I
hired them for yeah and he didincredible work there.
I have nothing to to say aboutit, so no great that's what I
thought too but that's a funnystory.
But normally, yeah, I would nothire somebody who did that to me
.
But look, he made it.
He, he did great work and hewas up front about what happened

(29:58):
.
I don't like bullshitters, youknow.
I knew exactly when he said it,like he was genuine.
This happens and he made it.

You know, that was, that was the main
thing I remember at the meetingyou were like if you're late,
like you're out, you're notgetting hired ever again.
So as soon as you said that Iwas like dang.
He got a second chance becausehe made it.
He was late, but he was on theplane I was gonna say as long as
you're on the plane, late ornot, he's there.
Yeah, that's awesome he's gonnahate me for telling this story.

No, he's a great guy.
Please don't, Emmanuel.
I'm sure you're going to watchthis.

Maybe one day you'll stop ignoring my phone
calls.
We can go get a beer sometime.

Exactly yeah, and then anyway.
So yeah, but no, this isincredible, man, that we have
common people and you're helpingand sharing, and what I want to
know is now that let's talk tothe meat that people want to
know, or at least I want to knowabout, is retainer clients,
that's like the key to successin video, because I've said this

(30:49):
a thousand times, I'll say itagain Nobody who's successful in
video gets 50 new clients everyyear.
It's just impossible.
The easiest thing is to keepthe clients that you have.

Keep them happy.

Keep coming them, keep them happy.
So you clearly are doing that.
And so what's your strategy?
A how do you do that?

And B I want to know how you structure your
retainers okay, we'll start witha, because b is going to be
atrocious.
Uh, a, uh, that was.
How do I keep the retainerscorrect?
Uh, so the few retainers that Ihave, which started with the
one, it was pretty much hey,come, shoot my inventory, get it
done, get it up.
Don't make me babysit, I'll behappy, easy peasy.

(31:31):
Shoot some units, get them onthe internet, bada, bing, bada,
boom, I'm done.
He's happy.
That turned into some otherstuff.
I've now taken on more roles andnow he pays me more money and
same thing.
I show up when I need to orwhen I want.
Essentially, I don't want tosay need to, because he's pretty
lenient.
As long as he doesn't have tobabysit and everything's done,

(31:52):
he doesn't care.
Two days a week, actually, he,just for the first time in I
almost want to say probably ayear, made a request like hey,
can we start doing more videowork?
And I said absolutely, I'vebeen trying to and I'm here for
it.
So my other guys, they're inthe same boat, as long as I'm
there and I'm doing the work andthey don't have to babysit,

(32:13):
they don't have to monitor theirsocial media, cause I do share
the stuff that I create for themon their social media, so they
don't have to worry about it andthey don't care what it looks
like, how it comes like, whatit's shot on, as long as it
obviously doesn't look terrible.
Anyone can shoot from an iPhone.
We were kind of alreadyspeaking about that, like in a

(32:35):
couple of years that's what alot, even now, camera iphones
are so good.
Yeah, uh, visuals are not anissue.

So perception may be different, but correct, but
not on social media content.

I think that may not even be an issue there.
Yeah, so with the power sportsdealership, I shoot with a sony
a74.
Everything's easy peasy,they're all happy.
Sometimes he'll be like, hey, Iwant to do this, and he's easy
peasy, they're all happy.
Sometimes he'll be like, hey, Iwant to do this.
And he's like don't bring allyour lights, I don't need none
of that bullshit.
And he's like just shoot it.
He's like don't make your lifehard, just shoot it.
And I said, okay, cool, you'rehappy, I'm happy.

(33:08):
And then we, uh, my otherretainer or my other retainer
clients, they're exactly thesame.
They're like like, we don'tcare what you shoot it on, you
can shoot it with a potato.
As long as it's done, it looksgood and it's turned in in a
timely manner, we're good withit.
And I just watched davidmorefield, uh, youtube, and he's
shot on an iphone and like withthe little four transmitters,

(33:29):
and I was like dude, I was likeI feel like you're doing exactly
what I'm doing.
You got a retainer, I got aretainer and one, um, my general
contractor, my one generalcontract that I have, he doesn't
care, he's like you can shootit on a cell phone if I can have
it up same day.
I'm I'm here for it.
So, honestly, I've beenshooting a lot on a dji pocket

(33:51):
three and then yeah, dude, yeah,that thing looks incredible the
amount, I'm surprised I don'tactually have it in my pocket.
I usually carry it everywhere.
The amount of money I've madefrom that thing is insane.
And for anyone to say like, ohwell, you have that job because
you have a nice camera, I make alot of money literally on an

(34:11):
iphone and on a dji pocket 3.
Anyone can afford a DJI pocketthree.
And I keep getting on tangentsas long, as long as my clients
are cool, fun and I don't wantto say entertaining, but they do
keep me entertained.
They don't care what I'm doing,as long as everything is up, it
looks good and, I guess, in atimely fashion, whether it's an

(34:34):
iPhone or an eight, seven, s,three, fx, three, fx, six,
whatever you want to shoot on, Ifeel like I feel like it got
weird on that one.

That's okay.
I mean, I completely get it.
What you mean, what I'm curiousabout is so so it seems, which
is great, that's what we want,right?
We?
Want a client who says hey,again what?

I'm talking about.

That's amazing.
Now let's talk about the realthing.
You can't really put that in acontract.
Hey, do whatever on Mondays andTuesdays and I'll pay you this
much.
So how are you structuringthese retainers for A how long
and what are the deliverables,at least legally, in your
contract?
Or do you even have a contractI?

was going to say so.
When I was messaging you onInstagram yesterday, it was like
I feel like I'm not doing itright, because I learned from
YouTube.
I learned just from watchingother people do it.
I didn't have really a mentor,so all of my jobs they're like
gentleman's agreement,essentially Like hey, I'm going

(35:42):
to come in two days a week, twohours at peace.
Uh, whether I have a contractor not, I feel like they could
let me go tomorrow and I don'thave the money to fight somebody
.
Like hey, like agreement breach, like you got to pay me at
least the rest of this month.

I mean, I can't say that I don't have the money
I'm not a lawyer, but yes, youcan.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but yes, butit's just more like Kill fees
are a real thing, just so youknow.

I was like, if you're going to crush it, I'm
not going to be here next month.
Like, hey, just let me know.
Like we're cool and I'm nowgood friends with all of my
clients that I work with.
I play hockey with two of them.
One of them is now a goodfriend that was my power sports

(36:18):
guy and it's just a kind of agentleman's thing and every now
and then I ask for a little bitmore money and so far I haven't
got any kickbacks.
They've, they've all been goodwith it.
I'm not asking for the moon,it's just like hey, yeah, do you
want this?
I want to charge you an extrafive hundred dollars and five
hundred dollars added to themonthly, whatever you're paying
me.
It just it all adds up and it'seasy and I feel like like I'm
not asking for a lot.

No, that's very fair.
And again, you don't need to gointo exact numbers.
Feel free to either round it upor just tell me if you don't
want to tell me.
But what I'm curious about isso it sounds like so far you
obviously you're friends withthem, so it's like very easy Now
, yeah, Now you are Now yeah,it's just gentleman's agreement,
like a handshake.
You know you don't haveanything on written.

(36:57):
You go what?
Two days a week for one of them, or two of those, two of those,
one day for one, yeah.
And then one day for one.
So how do you charge likepayments?
Do you have automatic recurringpayments and roughly what
you're able to charge and do youhave a given like you have to
make this much deliverables?
How are they valuing you atwhatever that price point is?

so I don't have a deliverable.
Uh, there's no agreement onactual deliverables for any of
them.
Uh, for example, my generalcontractor if we go out looking
for a couch for his mother'shouse which we've done we record
absolutely nothing.
He's like dude.
He's like we got literallynothing done today.
He's like that's not on you,that's me, poor management on
myself.
I'll see you next week.
And he and he pays me because Icame out there.

(37:42):
It's essentially he's payingfor my time.
Now there are days where I'llshoot headshots for the guys in
his company and we it was like aday rate type job.
Let's say 800 bucks for the day, yeah, 1200 bucks, whatever,
whatever you charge, um, I'mfortunate enough to where I can

(38:05):
go week to week, knowing thatI'm gonna make.
So I, 600 bucks, that's what Icharge.
And, uh, and it's week to week,every week, 600 bucks, whether
we're going on a trip.
We're going to Costa Rica,we're going to Vegas, which
we're both going to VegasJanuary 19th we're going to SHOT
Show.

That's where I wish I was going.

I'm getting paid to go do that.

That's so cool yeah.

Everything's getting paid for.
I'm actually kind of doubledipping because one of my other
retainer clients is sending methere, uh, because I work for a
gun company and they're sendingme there to record content for
them, so I get to go to therange day.
I'm not a huge gun guy, for therecord I love guns, but I don't
know much about them.
Yeah, uh, I guess the range dayall the big like I know all

(38:52):
about them, but that's not thetopic.
But let's go uh, we all get togo shoot them outside, I guess,
and supposedly it's prettybadass and you have to be super
high in the industry to go tothis actual range day and shoot
everybody's brand new gunsthey're about to release, like
the following day, so I'm goingto go do that and then it'll be
inside, wherever we are.
I guess this is like thebiggest gun convention in the

(39:14):
States.
Maybe you know that.
Yeah, so I get to do that.
And then I hired my buddy as agrip, who's my general
contractor.
So it's funny.
He's going to be working for me, but I'm going to shoot a
little bit of content for himtoo.
So now I'm going to double dipon both of them and I'm going to
make money from one.
Make money from the other and Icontinue to get paid.
While my trip's getting paidfor, I'm going to eat like a
king.

We've already locked in some really cool
restaurant things that we'regoing to go do some really
unhealthy burritos, and I'msuper excited for and uh see see
, what's crazy is sure, in oneway, you like you said you, you
don't understand business or youdon't have any of the
structures that I would say youneed to have, yeah, but on the
other side you're doing it likea business owner, because you're
like hey, look, we're gonna,I'm gonna double dip here oh

(39:57):
yeah, you gotta maximizeopportunity, you're still
maximizing your roi yeah andyou're doing the correct things.
Uh, and you know, like you said,somebody's paying for your
travel, somebody's paying foryour food, somebody's gonna pay
for your lodging and you'regonna create content and you get
to go to a cool show.
I mean, vegas has all the coolshows I to go to but nobody's
willing to pay me to go to, likeCES, nab.

(40:19):
I'll get you next year.

There you go, I'll get you next year.
There you go, I'll come withyou.
There you go, I'll be yourgroup, my PA, whatever Exactly,
I'll come yeah.

But no, the typical that people say at the
end of the day, you're running asuccessful business and you're
doing all the right things,clearly, but seems like it's
also you're having fun doing itoh, absolutely so I'm.

I'm I'm making it day by day the most
unorganized way possible, butI'm learning from mistakes.
Uh, definitely learning frommistakes.
This year, especially, taxesare going to kick me in the butt
pretty hard.
I I do have an LLC.
Like I am legit, I haveinsurance.
I strongly recommend anyonethat has LLC to have insurance.
If you step foot on any, any,any anywhere where you're

(41:06):
shooting, you should haveinsurance, because if something
small happens or huge happens,at least you're covered.
Um, I know, when I first started, if I didn't have the insurance
and someone did get hurt, Iwould have been absolutely
screwed.
But I do have that.
It's relatively cheap for whatit is and your coverage.
Yeah, I'm super excited forShaw Show and then, following

(41:27):
that, we're going to Costa Ricain February and that's going to
be with my general contractor.
We're going to go create morecontent over there.
We're going to go look forbuildings and we're gonna show
some stuff off.
Uh, like, hey, look howterrible this is and this is
what we would do.
Uh, or hey, like, look howawesome this is and it's cheaper
over here because whateverwhatever he wants.

(41:48):
Yeah, just make content, yeahI'm gonna shoot it on my pocket
three and I'm gonna have it upthat day and he's gonna be
happier than ever.
We're gonna go ride dirt bikesand rip side by sides and then
it's going to be going to beawesome you know what's.

What's, what's so amazing about this conversation
that we're having.
We're so similar in the waylike I feel the passion for you
about making content, tellingstories, but the approach is
completely different.
You saying I'm going to takethe pocket three, I'm going to
post it the same day.

It's just like gives me, gives me like
chills, I'm like no, I need tohave my lighting, my sound my,
my like I gotta get everythingright.

So it's like you know, like I don't know, I can't
even to be real we've done sameday edits for conferences.
But what I would do.

(42:41):
But again, that's paying.
This is the idea that look,there's not just one way, right?

Correct, you don't got to have all this.
I do have a lot of this.

And I do jobs like this, but each client is
different.

Each client is different.
Some don't care about that.
They just want something thatthey know is going to look
better than what they canprovide, and they want it now.
And I'm able to do that.
Yeah, most other people areable to do that, yeah it's just
but.

But that's.
That's the story I think youhave right now.
Is that basically just yourphone, maybe a pocket three,
which is not that expensive of acamera?
You can go out there and make aliving, and make a good living
at that, and that's incredibleand that's the same thing.
Like I said, we're doing thesame thing, but that's just an
alternate way of doing it.

(43:35):
I think you're making betterprofit because you have barely
any expenses which is why IRS isnot going to like you was just
like uh, I can go like oh, thisis expense, that's an expense,
that's an expense you have likea pocket three oh, I do have a
good amount of expenses, but uh,yes compared, compare or
comparably speaking.

Yes, my expenses are next to nothing
compared to a lot of otherpeople.

The competitive advantage there is.
Again, I don't know the exactnumbers, but $200,000 for me or
anyone else may only be worth$100,000 for you, because if our
expenses are that much higher,we need to make double, triple
whatever, to make what you'remaking and have the same
lifestyle right.

Yeah, not over here.
I'm making $100,000 and doingwell with $100,000.
Exactly.

So that's incredible.
That's what I'm saying, wow.

And hopefully one person takes their approach
and I I'm.
I'm speaking at a school on theeighth and oh yeah, so today's
the third speaking to a school,and my main objective is to to
find not necessarily to findthat I don't want to say loser
punk rock skater kid, like I was, but like I hope that I can
connect with one kid throughoutthe whole day, if it's just one,

(44:46):
to prove that someone likemyself and hopefully someone
like him, whether they're makingA's and B's, c's and D's,
whatever, there's otheralternatives than going to
college or going to the militaryor, uh, I don't want to say
trade school, but I think tradeschools are a better alternative
than most of those otheroptions.
But uh yeah, just a camera, apassion, you can make money

(45:09):
doing it if you apply yourself,and I, I think I'm a very good
example and you're gonna knowhow to do anything and I feel
like I don't know how to do alot, but I'm making it work
every day and learning bymistakes and I try not to repeat
them.
And here I am, and now I'm on areally cool podcast well, thank
you.

Talking about people that are cool, doing big
stuff, yeah, no, but that's,that's uh.
Like I said, I I'm I'm alreadylike really excited to hear
everything you've said so far,because it's so, so incredible,
but at the same time, sodifferent than the path that
I've been on.
Um, but that's crazy, but butyou speak about it.
I know it's a little tangent,not on the topic that we're
talking about, but you're rightabout like, uh, trades, like in

(45:49):
this country right now, man, ifyou just went to trade school,
you can come out already makingsix figures better than us video
people, because you don't evenneed to do all the learning and
the education all that, you justlearn that one trade because
the demand, at least in Florida,for HVAC techs is so high.

It's crazy.
It's crazy.
I accidentally got put in anHVAC class in high school and I
thought it was supposed to besomething else that I signed up
for.
I got there and I was like,like what the hell is hvac?
I was like I thought this was,I don't know pottery, whatever
the hell it was.
You know.
Like, oh yeah, you're gonnalearn ac, cooling and heat and
all this stuff's.
Like I have zero interest inthat.
Like get me out of this.

(46:25):
And I went and spoke to thecounselor and I got out of it.
Shoot me in the foot yeah, no,yeah, non-flu, yeah, I would
have been doing great now, but,granted, I love what I do now
and I'm happy that I did get outof that.

Exactly.
But you know, like so manybuilders that I work with, like
same thing they're just theycan't find good people.
You know, reliable, good peoplein HVAC.
So if, if somebody right nowjust went out and you know, went
to trade school, whatever andgot really good at it a killer

(46:59):
in florida, none of this camerabs that we have to do, um, so
it's incredible.
I've seen a lot of yeah, a lotof opportunities out there, so
there's lots of ways to makemoney.
Um, you know, you just have to,like, you know, do it yeah that
is what it comes down to.

Yeah, you have to.
You just got to go for it.
You gotta apply yourself sothat so that's awesome.

So what's next for you?
Seems like I think you prettygot locked in.
So do you just want to coast ordo you want to do something
different?

Or what are you wanting to do next?

I just want to keep doing fun shit.

More power sports guys please, that's
actually my new retainer.
I just picked up another one,which is actually funny that I'm
working for him, because it isactually a retainer client that
I had before the covid.
Uh, he moved away to texas orsomething like that and he came
back and now he's working atanother location.
Their store has nothing like nocontent, no, anything.

(47:53):
There's not even any bikes ontheir website.
Like, how do you sell bikesthat don't exist?
They just look like stockimages.
When you buy a car maybe notyour truck, your van sorry,
don't want to, yeah, um, butit's.
You want to see an actualpicture of it.
And when clients come, hey, Isee you have this whatever bike
and it looks great.
I see you're not trying to hideanything.

(48:14):
Everything's super high detail.
I don't even need to come seeit.
Can I buy it and send it toGeorgia?
That happens all the time.
He hit me up and he's like hey,come be my guy.
And I was like I'm 100% in.
But out of professionalism I didneed to speak to my other
dealership and typically it waslike hey, if they don't sell the

(48:34):
same product and they're notthe store right behind their
store, like, I'm good with itWhile this location sells uh,
one of their big brands.
They clash.
They're 20 miles from eachother.
They're competitors.
I told my boss, hey, if hedoesn't hire me, I'm going to
send someone else.
And it was actually Emmanuel.

(48:55):
And uh, I was like the samejob's going to get done, but
you're essentially Taking moneyout of my pocket.
Why not let me go do that?
It's not going to like Changeour work relationship.
I'm still going to get my samejob done here.
And I got the green light.

So I'm working at both.

So I'm excited.

That's incredible.
And then that's really nice Ofyour boss, some people do get
gung-ho on.
No, but I'm like like you said,it's gonna get done yeah why
take money from your?

pocket exactly, but at the same time
I'm pretty sure you areprofessional.

If you would have respected, if he had said no,
you wouldn't have done it rightyeah yeah, yeah so, so at least
when I first branched out Ididn't actually tell him.

And then I did tell him and he actually
fired me on the spot and Ididn't think about it was that
long time ago right before right.
Um, yeah, it was before covet,that's why, so that's when I got
the second dealership and, uh,I didn't think much of it.
I was like, oh, I'm justshooting more power sports, like
whatever cool, I'm gonna doublemy money work the same day.

(49:55):
And then I told him and he'slike you're not, you're not
being serious.
And I was like, no, I am.
And he's like dude, he's likeyou can't work here anymore.
And I was like, all right,that's, that's funny.
What are we doing for lunch?
He's like no, he's like dude,I'm gonna walk you out.
And he legit walked me out andI was like, holy cow, like
you're, you're being serious,serious.
I left and thankfully I don'tknow if it was like a week or

(50:19):
two weeks later, he's like hey,he's like I want you to come
back.
And I came back and I guess herealized like, hey, no matter
what, the same thing.
Like they're going to get theirphotos.
Now, he doesn't have someonegetting his photos, he doesn't
want to train somebody to dowhat I was doing and and,
realistically, I started becauseof him and I felt terrible like
, yeah, I don't think he'll everwatch this, but like I love

(50:42):
that dude, he's done a lot forme and uh, yeah, so it was a lot
to ask for this one and he toldme no originally.

Then he was like all right, you know what it's
like, they're gonna do it, sojust go send it and I actually
start friday with them, so well,congratulations in a good way,
but also, like I said, great onyour uh other boss, I guess, or
other client, to be okay withthat, because, like you said at
the end, yeah, uh, but I'm.
My philosophy is simple, isthat, like you know, if it

(51:12):
conflicts too much, I just don'tdo it, but if it's like you
said, if it's just going to getdone, it's.
It's nothing that competitiveyeah you know, like because you
don't know, you're makingpictures of stuff that sells.
They have that in the storecorrect.
Yeah, yeah it's going to getdone.
So then you know.
But it is nice to ask yourclient like is that okay?
Because, at the end of the day,uh, you don't want to create

(51:33):
conflict, so correct, and I was.

I was willing to not take the new job if he
was genuinely didn't want tocreate conflict, correct.
And I was willing to not takethe new job if he genuinely
didn't want me to do it.
I was going to tell him like,hey, buddy, I can't and I would
have sent the job to a friend.
Or hey, I have a buddy thatwill do it.
I'll even train him.
And thankfully, I just got thegig and here I am and still
doing the same thing.

And I'm going gonna start shooting for two
dealerships, which is gonna makeme more money and I'm gonna
have more fun and keep doingexactly.
Wow, man, this is, this isfreaking, um like, but I mean,
I'm just uh happy that, um, thatyou found this path and you
found more work with sounds likewhat you enjoy, um, and you're
doing it, so Okay.
So what would you tell, like,if you could do something
differently?
How would you approach that now, like, would you change

(52:22):
anything?

Like compared to what I'm doing, like what
would I do different?

If you could change anything, what would you
change?

Okay, so I'm learning now a lot about about,
like, the finance side ofbusiness and not, uh,
cross-mingling bank accounts.
Uh, actually, I learned this atthe last one that we just had
in orlando just the light bulbclicked, I said something to
david's meetup.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I saidsomething to david and david's
like dude, you can't do that,yeah.

(52:54):
And then I spoke to my gc guywho helps me out with a lot of
stuff cpa.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, so yeahso I send man, you want to talk
about bad.
I write everything like on youriphone in the notes tab, like I
go through my amazon list, I gothrough credit card statements,
I add it in, I break it downand then I actually throw that

(53:15):
into chat gpt and I say, hey,can you calculate this for me?
And it calculates all of thatmoney that I've spent.
I send that to him and he'slike dude, you're really sending
me like iPhone notes.
Still, bro, it's 2025 now whatare you doing?
I actually had QuickBooks for ayear.

(53:36):
I opened it once like nah dude,no, that's where it's free.
I believe I actually hadquickbooks for a year.
I opened it once like nah dude,no, it's, that's where it's at,
and uh.
So this year my goal is tobetter that.
I use my business card.
I got an amex travel card, uh,or an amex platinum card and a
amex gold card platinum.
I don't know if you have one,but but for all the lounges and

(53:57):
stuff.
Priority Pass or whatever I lovetraveling now, knowing that I
can go into a lounge, get amassage, take a shower Sometimes
I don't even need a shower, butit's a free shower it's an
incredible shower.
And then I go get a massage andthen I hop onto another flight
for an hour or two.
Dude, I'm living my best life.
Most of the time you get to anairport, you hate your life.

(54:17):
You hate dealing with people.
You get to your location,you're miserable and tired.
You just want to go to sleep.
I could go fly now and juststart working, if I really
wanted to, with that, but Ireally need to focus on just one
bank account, all business andthe business side, not pulling
from both accounts, co-minglingI think, yeah, you definitely
don't want to do that Again, notany kind of advice over here.

But yeah, my biggest thing also is the
contract side of it.
Nothing wrong with thehandshake agreements, but the
truth is, anyone in this countrythat will make money is lawyers
and you never again.
Chad GPD is awesome.
I use it all the time.
I wouldn't use it for contracts.
Get a real lawyer, because thething is there's some terms

(55:01):
again not legal advice but theycan add like literally
attorney's fees and kill feesand all these things in there,
Because what happens is, let'ssay, your client doesn't pay you
, you can take them, you canjust call your attorney and
they'll handle the rest becausetheir fees are in it.
Like you don't have to worryabout it, because they're going
to take care of it.
Yeah, because, because you, theyput it in the contract.

(55:23):
If you, if you build a goodcontract, right, Um, they can
put all that in there, Meaningor if they like ah, we don't
have money anymore.

Yeah, sorry, buddy, yeah exactly.

Then the attorney and plus otherwise.
A lot of times what happens iswhen people go to ChatGPD or
these websites, when they builda contract it may just say sure,
you can go to small claimscourt and you can get your money
back, but the attorney's feesmay be.
Let's say, they owed you 600bucks and you can get your money
back, but the attorney's feesmight be let's say, they owed
you $600 and then $10,000 forthe attorney and you're like not
worth it.

That's what I was talking about earlier when
I was like I don't have themoney to deal with that, and
that was really what I wasmeaning.

It's not worth it at that point, and that's why
I'm saying you want an attorneywho will build that in that hey
least, if you have to go tocourt, they also have to pay the
attorney.
So you are not coming out ofpocket and you get paid what you
deserve to be paid.
So my thing is I would highlyrecommend and again, if it's

(56:29):
working working, don't destroythe relationship.
But contracts are incredible inthis country.
They're enforceable and theattorneys that enforce them can
build them in a way thathopefully you don't have to even
spend attorney's fees becausethe the other party would pay
for them.
So I would highly recommendanyone doing this just in the
beginning just start withcontracts I wish I had done yeah

(56:52):
, and and, and, maybe in thefuture, like I would.
I would highly suggest workingwith an attorney because you
want to build such a strongcontract.
Now.
It is a negotiation.
I'm sure when you sign up theymay want some changes or
whatever.

I don't know.

That's part to negotiate.
But the point is, if you have agood contract and it protects
them too, it's not just you.
It says, hey, I'm going tominimum deliver, I'm going to
come for two days.
I'm going to minimum deliver.
I'm going to come for two days,I'm going to x amount of
deliverables and obviously, uh,just like I think me you deliver
more than what you probablywill put in there, so I do so
you'd never have to worry aboutthat as long as you do what you
say.

(57:26):
But it protects them that, hey,we're gonna get this for this
money.
If they don't get what they'repaying you for, then you know,
then they don't have to pay you.
So it protects technically bothof you.
But I don't know.
I would highly suggestespecially if anyone's starting
this now already start with acontract in place.
Already start with the LLC,already start with your
QuickBooks or some kind ofaccounting software, because

(57:49):
yeah, learn it out of the gate,then you don't have to learn it
later, years later.

Yeah, and you don't have to fix the mistakes
or whatever.
I feel like an old dog.
I don't want to learn anythingnew.
I have an idea of what I'mdoing and it seems to be working
.
Why change it?
But when it comes to somehowpossibly affecting my family or
my bank account as a whole, Ican't play that game.

No, exactly learn.
I would rather people not learnthe hard way, like for me, like
long time ago, when I startfirst set of my business and
it's cool, you know like, oh,what's the name gonna be?
Or llc, and you set that up andthen next thing you know you're
getting bill like you need tofile this tax, you need to file
this tax and you're like what?
I just set up a name?
It's like no, no, no, it's alegal entity.
So a lot of people you know Ilearned it that way, yeah yeah,

(58:38):
yeah.
You do something I didn't haveany mentors or anyone initially,
like I said, especially whereit was like oh no, you got to do
it this way, I had to learnit's like oh, what is this bill
for?
What is this stupid tax?
And then you have to Google it,you have to figure out and then

(59:02):
you know, uh, the other waysare like oh, what is this tax?
Like oh, what are you tellingme they're going to charge 30 on
my you know income for excel?
Like what is that for?
Anyway?

and or oh, you can write off miles.
Oh, I wasn't recording them.

You know, use my like exactly yeah, so it's like
things like that, and, and sohopefully anyone, at least even
I, can have one person like youknow, you want to do this from
day one.
Yeah, so you're already farahead of us.

Yeah, no, 100%, exactly Right.
And you you are.
I believe you said you didn'thave like somebody, like what
we're doing.
I didn't have one, it was justall learn, and I think it's now,
with the way YouTube is, youcan literally find anything.
Granted, obviously you got tobe careful with your YouTube
heroes, because sometimes theygive the worst advice.

You've got to be very careful with the advice.
You can find gold, though.

No, yeah for sure, and not to plug David
again, but seeing the raw likeday-to-day what he's doing.
And you've got Jared Phelps inTexas, who I also met at one of
the meets, which I believe thatwas the first time I saw you.
I don't know, I think it waslike a taco place, Either way,

(01:00:03):
or maybe it was the rooftop bar.
Either way, I met Jared as welland Jared told me he's like
yeah, I do like EA stuff, videogames.
I was like what the?

Vipul Bindra (01:00:14):
hell, it's there in our house over here, yeah.
I was like what the hell ofvideo games?
And?

Justin Markwalter (01:00:20):
nobody.

No, I had no idea, that was even a thing and wow,
that's so crazy because I grewup, you know, es sports oh, no,
yeah, I knew that.

Yeah, yeah, oh.
I grew up playing some videogames.
I still play today at 38, and Ifeel I don't want to say like a
loser, but I'm like man, I gotto put these things down.
Yeah, when he said he was likewhat are you shooting in video
games?
Like what are you and I'm notgoing to talk bad about someone
that does like Twitch streaming?
That's literally what I wasthinking.

(01:00:48):
And then I saw his Instagram, Iwas like, oh man, you're doing
Halo and like you're doing thefull, like championship games,
like you are living what I wantto be doing.
Like that is incredible.
I grew up on halo.
That land parties, like thatwas the coolest thing in the
world to me.

And then for this man to come in and say, or for
that man to be doing that, I waslike, dude, that's a childhood
dream that you're living rightnow and that's way cool that's
awesome, yeah and and so I'msaying the paths that people can
take is so crazy, like yeah,but you know again, if somebody
told me, like you know, as a kidI love playing video games,
that hey, I can go make videosfor video games or land parties

(01:01:26):
or whatever, and make money?
Yes, and good money better thana job.
Yes, crazy, couldn't have evenimagined, and yeah uh.
But you know again, I thinkthere's also a little bit of
lottery in this, because uh, Iwould not, I would agree yeah,
because it's it's.
There's one thing to first know,right.
The second I think it takes aspecial type of person because

(01:01:49):
everyone can do it for five days, but you have to keep doing it
you know, keep doing it, like,for example, for the client.
I think outreach is one of themost annoying things in the
world.
To just cold outreach, eitherby email or in person or
whatever, and uh, it's very hard.
Like most people will give upbecause you know if it was a lot

(01:02:11):
of no, yeah exactly, and thenmost people just take it
personal if they're not sayingno to you.
What I'm saying is it takes in aspecial type of person to be
able to get through that.
And then not only that, thenyou've all these factors, you
know, trying to put you down orall this noise around you.
So it's very difficult.

But also the pressure of landing one.
If you do get one, then thepressure of like man.

I really got to impress this guy to lock that in
Exactly.

You can get it and do crap, and then they're
never going to call you again.
You've got to produce.

Exactly so it comes down to.
I think that's why I'm likefinally, I think it's the
lottery aspect of it.
For some reason, some peoplejust aren't going to make it.
I don't think it had anythingto do with their skills and
effort, because, you know, Idon't know, that's what I've
seen, Like this I wouldn't sayit's that much, but there is a
little element of it.
What do you think?

(01:03:02):
Yeah, I would.
I would agree with a hundredpercent.
You have to have some luck.

Yeah, and there's people that are doing it
, that and again, not to talkbad about anyone else living
their life and they're making it.
But there's people that somepretty terrible content and
they're doing great, yeah,they're, they're absolutely
crushing it and their clientssaid, no, this is my guy, I, I
don't want to work with anyoneelse, this is my guy.
If you're that guy and you'remaking it like fantastic and I

(01:03:28):
think that is also a lot of luckand who you know in the
networking world, it's just thatI will say and and to be honest
, I I'm let's see this one say Ihave two contrasting sides.

There's a business side.
There's a creative side of me,a creative side of me.
When I look at terrible footage, I'm like how can this person
get paid to make this?
But the truth is what I'velearned and the way to make
money is all your clients careabout is making money.
I'm sure you'll say the same.
If you're not selling, you knowthey're not getting rid of the
equipment at the dealership.

(01:04:00):
They're not.
They're going to let you govery quickly.

Oh, 100%, even if you're friends, right?

Yeah, yeah, at the end of the day, they keep you
because what you do makes themmoney, right.

Yeah.

And that's more important than that.
Your videos are pretty andobviously you're making pretty
videos.
Which is good.
They care about is money and uh, sometimes, uh, some people can
make money without makingpretty videos.
Now, I wish they were doingboth, because I think you can do
both.
You can make good videos andstill make the money, yeah but

(01:04:29):
at the end of the day, I'msaying, a business owner will
always choose somebody who makesthe money over pretty videos.
So sometimes I think that'salso a thing where they've had a
relationship.
Where the videos work, it makesthe money and somebody can come
in be like, look, all my videoswill be pretty there.
It's just not worth the risk,uh because this guy's working.

Yeah, exactly this is working what we're
doing now.
Yeah, why change it exactly?

because all they care about is making money and
they they don't want to let thisguy go or hurt his feelings or
whatever what's already workingI don't want to go through that
process exactly.

It's working, why change it?

exactly I.
It's unfortunate and I'm sayingall the filmmaker part of me is
like, but it is what it is, I'mactually, I'm that guy.

Why are they hiring that dude?

yeah, exactly because but but I've learned
again.
You know the kindness part ofthis is what you can do is go
find your five people that justwant to work with you and you
kill them with both right.
You give them not only content,but you give them the money
that they need.
Cause at the end of the day,like I said, that's all the King
at the in the corporate andcommercial world.
They have to make money andthey'll pay you a portion of it.

(01:05:31):
Simple as that.
It's a it's a give and takerelationship.
So if you're not going to makethe money they're they're going
to, let you go pretty fast.
Yeah, no, absolutely so.
So I think that's.
I think the approach to me isbetter, like where you find your
five, you find your tribe, youknow, and don't worry about
other people.
Like stop worrying about whateveryone else has, what money

(01:05:54):
they're making, who theirclients are, what the content is
.
Now, it's one thing to do iteducationally, because to me,
the biggest thing that you canget to know is here's what I
charged, here's what thedeliverables were, here's, like,
how many people I got, andmaybe my profit ratio.
That type of information isactually valuable because you
could go like, hey, this is a 10grand project.

(01:06:17):
Uh, I had to make deliver threevideos, right, and my cost to
produce them was, I don't know,five grand.
So you could calculate like,okay, I could I make five grand
profit.
Yeah, I could make it work.
But if you don't have thatinformation, if you're bidding
against let's say me and youdon't know what I'm charging and
what my deliverables are, thenit's hard to compete because you

(01:06:37):
may be under.
But if you're only deliveringone video with one person or the
value's not there.
Exactly.
Even though you're lower, theclient won't go with you, and I
think that's the valuableinformation that could help.
But outside of that, I don'tthink it matters what anyone
else is doing, because at theend of the day, you go to the
client, you make the money.
You make them awesome videos.

(01:06:58):
They will, and as long as it'sworking, they're not going to go
anywhere.

If it's working for them, they're in it.
Yeah, exactly.

And that's simple.
You just find your five or yourfour and you can make a killer
living doing this, yeah.

So that's what I'm doing now, and I love
it.
If one of mine, for whateverreason, decided like hey, I
think we're going to go in adifferent direction, or I don't
know, we don't want to do thisanymore, we're going to take a
break, whatever, cool, I'll takemy loss, I'll try to find
somebody else, and who knowswhere it'll be.
Obviously, with this networkingstuff, or okay, that opens up

(01:07:32):
another day that I can say hey,guys, just so you know, like, if
you need anybody, I'm available, if you need anybody, I'm
available.
Every Saturday, sunday, monday,you got a gig.
You need another shooter, letme know.
Or you can't make it, you needto send somebody.
I'm your guy, let me know.
Currently.
You're busy, I'm busy, which isgood.

I mean, that's the best thing, is a video person
you can say is I don't haveavailability, that means you're
doing well, and I think again,again, I've said this before too
but like that makes you a bestnegotiator, because now you're
not.
If.
If a gig pops up that orproject pops up that you
actually want to do, you'll beway more relaxed negotiating
through it than just going, oh,I have to get this, I have

(01:08:09):
correct this right and you'llget a better deal for you and
the client in turn at the end ofit, because you were not
desperate.
You are not just taking it thefirst thing thing.

Anything someone's throwing at me.
I don't care what it pays, Ihave to do it Exactly.
And that's when you make baddeals.
Yes, 100%, and I feel likewe've all done that.
Yeah, and we learn from it andit's like, okay, I'm not getting
out of bed for this much money,it is what it is.
Yeah.

I mean, you got to pick that number Otherwise.

Because you don't want to be miserable.

The worst thing you can do as a video person is
show up on set, you know, andthen be miserable because you
are not happy with, because,even if, well, it shows, my
thing is, yeah, exactly.

Your whole crew is going to know.

And then you're never going to get hired.
Or even because you know youhave to understand they offered
you a rate, and I'm not sayingthat was a good rate.
Whatever the rate, let's saythey offered you a really low
rate, just say no.
But if you say yes, for somereason, like you got to pay your
bills.
Then go be good, be positiveand not be miserable because
it's $100 or whatever that youdeserve obviously more, because

(01:09:10):
nowadays again $100 is toolittle.

Absolutely not doing it for $100.

Yeah, but I'm just saying, somebody is at that
level where they will do it fora hundred bucks yeah then at
that point you got, you have toat least still give it your
hundred percent, because, guesswhat, you don't know who are the
, who else is there?

who are you and who will see that video
exactly?

and that could be, you know, a portfolio fees if
you were a camera, or forwhatever the point is.
You don't know what it leads to, but guess what it will do
negative, uh, recommendationwill go much further than 100,
because guess what everyone willbe like?

oh, that guy I remember that guy.
Yeah, he was not again.

Not not fun to be here, and even though you may be
great, you just were not justnot happy about being paid such
a low rate.
So again, don't take it if youknow if, if you, if you won't be
happy, that's, that's right atthe end day.
But again, I'm all for.
I don't like people being takenadvantage of but to be real,
when you're green, I thinkpeople should just be on more

(01:10:09):
sets and if that means 50 bucksor a hundred bucks, as long as
they're not disrespecting you,they're being upfront, like up
front.
Like hey, this is the rate yeah, no, but and I'm and they're
accepting that you're green.
Right, there's a fair exchangethere.

I think you should do it, because that's the
only way you can learn isyou're going to get 100 bucks,
but you're also going to learn alot, exactly, and that's worth,
and that's valuable.
That's valuable and that that'shonestly why I try to get on
sets, because I want to see whatyou're doing.
I want to see how you're doingit and how can I implement what
I'm doing with what you're doingand I'm like man that's going
to make me a better shooter,whether it's your lighting or

(01:10:46):
the way you set up your camera,the way you shoot, or hey, look
at this, and I think I saidearlier, it's like I would have
never thought of that if I hadnot been here today.

I would have never learned that and what's funny
is that I just threw thistogether so I didn't get enough
sleep.
I was like, um, what do I havein the camera cart?
And then put it together.

So I'm glad you like it, so say it looks
great.

Yeah, I mean we're here hanging out power of fx6,
right it just, it just makeseverything look nice um kind of
wish I had a hat on this year.

Yeah, the shine, this crazy shine line, my
bad lighting.

I could move the backlight away, but you know I'm
too lazy to do that.

No, we're good, we're good.
We just live with the shine.
I love that.
I even have that.
That's pretty cool.

So but see, that's what I'm talking about and I'm
glad at least you learnedsomething.
So that makes me because that'smy point, man, and I'm still
trying to learn because thisindustry moves so fast.
It's crazy how like talk about.
Shasha like that.
We have NAB and every yearthey're freaking launching new

(01:11:49):
crap and it's hard to sometimeseven keep up for somebody like
me who's so freaking obsessedwith everything.
I have that personality, I haveto know everything, I have to
test everything to see how itfits in my workflow, which can
become really hard when freaking500 new products come out and
you're still trying to run afreaking large video production

(01:12:10):
company.
So anyway, it can get veryoverwhelming also with what we
do.

If you want to do it, at least at the, at
least at the size or the scalethat I'm trying to at least do,
at least trying, you know butthe way things are moving, um,
because something you just saidmade me think this what do you,
what do you think of, like, uh,all the ai stuff that's coming
out to essentially assist inyour video, uh, production and
quality?

I think it's incredible.
I can't wait for new and newand new tools to come out.
See, I don't know why peopleget so worked up over like, oh,
it's going to take our jobs,it's not going to take our jobs?

I don't think it will.

Because the thing is, what makes me me is me.
I don't know the right way tosay it, but think of it this way
Client comes and gives you athousand bucks, and they give me
a thousand bucks.
They say go make a video, right.

You'll make a great video.
I'll make a great video, but itwill not be the same video.

So it doesn't matter how good the AI gets, it
will not make the video.
I will make the video.
And my clients don't come to mebecause they just want a video.
They want my video because itmade their friend or somebody
they know.
There's companies 10x, 20xrevenue.
That's why you come to me.
You don't come to me.
They get a decent looking videoas a bonus right, yeah

(01:13:26):
obviously, because I'm acreative person.
I don't want to make good videos.
We'll try and make it the bestlooking video at that price
point.
That's just a bonus.
Right, you're coming to mebecause you say, hey, I want to
sell I don't know 100 new ofwhat I sell every month.
That's why I'm there.
Right, I'm trying to see ifvideo can A solve that and, if
it can, how it can solve that.

(01:13:47):
And that's why you bring me on.
I don't know why an AI can orhow an AI can replace that.
If it can, then I'll happilyretire.
I mean I'm too young to retireat 33, but I will I mean that's
what it is and, at the end ofthe day, I don't think AI is
going to get there because it'snot going to replace me, but I
am all for AI helping me.

(01:14:07):
As soon as ChatGPD came out andall these people were like
writers are, I was like no, thisis incredible.
This gives you a starting point.
It clearly is not good enough toreplace a writer, but what it
does replace is it's true.
Instead of me having them waitweeks and weeks, now I can be
like okay, here's the firstdraft, now make it good.
They may only get one or twodays, so it did affect a little

(01:14:29):
bit, but it's not like replacingthem.

I would never just take something off chat
GPT.

If they're funny to your liking and to your
personality.
Yeah, I know.
Also, it has a way to write itwhich is like a little jargony.
I don't know, I'm not a fan ofit, but it's a really good
starting point, especially like,for example, I was starting the
podcast, I'm like I don't wantto sit here brainstorm names.
I'm like, okay, here's what I'mgonna do.
Right, I've literally describedit.
I'm a vipple bender.
I'm the founder and owner ofbender productions.
This is what I do.

(01:15:01):
I want to start a podcastbecause I want to talk to cool
people and I want other peopleto.
Maybe you want to listen tothis.
What should the podcast?
But you know you have to alsofeed it information.
And gave me freaking 20 listsand half them were terrible I
was gonna say, oh yeah, that'show it is.

So I was like , oh, these two I like right can
you give me more like that?

and then you know, out of that, I was like, oh,
these two I like, right, can yougive me more like that?
And then you know, out of that,I was like, oh, these are more
the vibe I'm going for.
The point is it took me I'msaying that now but it took me
like 10 seconds to do that and30 seconds later I had a name
right.
It would have taken me hours inthe past to come up with that.

At the end of the day, I'm just trying to get
it over were with.
I don't have time and energy.
This isn't making me money tospend hours.
That doesn't matter, right?
That's what actually took methe longest uh time to create an
llc was I can't come up withone that makes me happy exactly,
or you end up with like worse,but this was literally, because
I didn't have chat gpd I wasjust like I don't know what to
name it.
All right, just last name nameproductions yep, and I wish you
could go back and change it, buttoo late, but that's what

(01:16:00):
happened I wish I had chat gpt,I would have come up with a
better yeah, the one I have nowwas a mix through chat, gpt and
then from a friend what do youname it?
So it's uh.
So I live in the 321, which isbrevard so is.
Brevard.
So it's 3-2-1 action media Okay, but it can also be construed

(01:16:20):
as like 3-2-1 action.

Exactly Media, pretty cool.

And I thought that part was pretty cool.
But now, after seeing it andhearing it, I was like I hate
that.
It says media on it.
Granted, it is media, it iswhat it is.

You want it to be what Three, two, one action.

Yeah, so it's like three, two, one action.

Is that available?
Um actually not.
It might be, but you may wantto.
I was going to say you want togo immediately by that.

Cause I have a new one now.

Okay, uh, so I'm, I don't know if you know the
Wyoming thing.

So I bought or set it all up for the company
.
I don't want to say it on herebecause yes, that's fine.

You'd probably go for privacy there.

I could have some conflict of interest on who
might hire me because of thisthing.
It's gun related and the wholegoal is to sell camera gun
styled merch and anyone thatI've said it to.
Actually, I said it to you atthe thing.
I don't know if you remember ornot, but it's in the process
and I'm super excited about it.
I'm going to get some badassshirts made and I just got to be

(01:17:30):
careful that my name's notattached to it because Disney's
going to like hey, like we'dlove to have you on set to shoot
whatever, like, oh, you're agun guy.

I, I'm gonna pass.

I'm gonna go to someone else.
I'll go to you and, uh, ormaybe not you, but you know what
I mean yeah, exactly, yeah, no,I know I know what you mean.

Yes, I, I get it.

It's like you're gonna not hire me because
of that, but yes, there arepeople that are like that and
unfortunately, you got to keepyour name off of things and
that's where it's gonna go.

So but that's pretty cool, though I mean, hey
look, I'm hats off to theentrepreneur.
Part of it here.
Like you know, you're doing it,you're achieving it, but you're
also being smart about itbecause you don't want to lose.

I don't want to lose income.

Yeah, because of something To make something.
I don't want to lose somethingto make something.

At that point it's not worth it.
Yeah but I think it is cool andI I feel like some people will
be wearing the t-shirts.

When are you when?

you plan to launch that?
Uh, I just purchased theWyoming side of it.
That takes a couple of days toprocess.
Um, tuesday, I'm probably goingto set it up, cause that's what
I'm going to be with my guy outin Daytona.

Using Shopify.

Uh, I don't know how I'm going to do that
yet that's gonna.

This is gonna be a whole brand new adventure um
shopify would work yeah I feellike it would work.
I don't know how I'm gonna do,thank goodness this is not one
of those youtube channels,otherwise I'd be like promo code
, yeah 20.

We don't have no sponsorships here.
20 or 20, yeah, whatever, yeah,uh.
But yeah, I'm hoping that worksout.
I'm gonna make some cool thingsand, uh, whether you bite or
not, I don't care, I want to doit for me and I and I, that's
what's going to make me happy.

So, yeah, I mean and like that's what it's about
man.
At the end day, it's all aboutyou.
You're happy yeah and you'remaking money.

I mean, I think other people like and I
already see people kind of doingwhat the company name is going
to be based around and like theprogram I I've I've actually
started a group also onInstagram like a private chat,
like how the Orlando Floridafilmmakers one is.
I've got a couple of buddies inthat one, emmanuel's in it, a
couple of my local buddies andI'm I'm trying to use that as

(01:19:33):
essentially like the OrlandoFlorida filmmakers page.
But for us guys over there,then we'll dip into some people
over here, but all guys that Iknow, all guys that I would
bring somewhere, personablepeople and people that I'd like
to be around and hopefullywithin that group that can grow
kind of like the Orlando one,but just a group of fun guys

(01:19:55):
that I enjoy being around andhopefully, guys, they enjoy
being around and we'll all worktogether and have some fun and
maybe shoot some guns and createsome content and wear badass
t-shirts look at that.

I mean that sounds pretty fun.
I mean, to a subset of audienceI guess it may not be so, but
yeah, yeah, yeah, pretty fun.
Yeah, I mean I think most ofthe people or at least all my
buddies they're.

They're all stoked on it so far.

They're like dude when you, when you're doing that
yeah it's gonna take a littlebit of time yeah, I don't know
why, but that's just acontroversial topic in america.
I don't get it.
Look, um, I wasn't born inamerica, I chose to be an
american, so I'm slightlydifferent, you know yeah you
know perspective on things, um.
But point is I don't get thewhole everything.

(01:20:40):
This becomes a controversything, but we're going to skip
past that.

But either way, it makes no sense to me.

Yeah, because you're just having fun.

It's like that in politics you believe
what you believe in, I believewhat I believe in.
You're a good dude, I'm a gooddude.
Let's work together, let's havesome fun.
We don't need to argue about it, yeah.

It makes no sense to me, but that's just the world
we live in.

Don't not hire me because of that, yeah.

And I work, man, I work.
I've done, obviously, politicalstuff.
I've done it for both sides.
I've nothing against anyone.
I think all Americans are.
Americans are, like me, justcool people trying to make money
.
Yeah, that's what unites us, inmy opinion.
Having been to enough countriesI mean I'm not world travel,
but I've been to enoughcountries to see the difference

(01:21:27):
I find, at least with, and whichis why I feel like I feel so
strongly as an american now isbecause we're united by one
front we all want to be fucking.
We want to be rich we all wantto not that meaning everyone
will get there, but we're allunited in that one front.
We want to be successful, we'regoing to provide for our
families and we want to have agood time, and I think that, no
matter what you believe in, tellme if I'm wrong.

I think that's what every American is
united by the American dream.

Exactly, and so I don't get the argument Because
at the end, the core we are waymore similar than anyone else
out there Yep, 100%, and it iswhat it is.
Yeah, so I mean we're going tomove back.

Let's go back to the fun stuff.
It's funny that that's where itwent, yeah.

But hey, this is unscripted, it goes live, it
goes wherever.
So I mean, hey, it's okay, letit's okay.

Let me ask you a question yeah go ahead.
If you were to let's say youdidn't have the van and you were
to wake up and go shoot likeyour dream shoot, you had a
month to plan it.
I guess like what kind of styleor what would you want to go
shoot Like?
If you could wake up tomorrowand be like man, I wish I shot
this Now, knowing what you know,what would you shoot?

Okay, I would shoot.

Okay, what would you shoot?
Okay, I would shoot.
Okay, have you seen drive?

to survive.
Do you know what that is?

uh f1 yes, I did.

I wasn't an f1 fan until I watched that okay, I've
been an f1 fan since 2006, theonly sport I thought, so I'm
obviously a nerd cameras, videogames that's what I was into
those camera guys, the onlysport yeah, the only sport I've
watched since I was a kid isformula one.
I just love because it's techie.
Again, you know you have tohave the literally millimeters
perfection to get it like it'sso advanced.

(01:23:03):
Anyway, I love that thatthousands of a second matters,
um, not to go into a tangent,but I found growing up that I
just cared about time too much,and other people around me
didn't, you know.
So I love that sport because Iwas like, oh, thousand of a
second matters here, like timematters, so anyway.
So I've been watching as a kidand then obviously nobody in
america actually even in theavari group, nobody freaking

(01:23:25):
knew about the sport or caredabout it.
It was a european thing and Iwas the only idiot, you know.
Like I have to watch every race, I have to watch it live
because it's not the same onceyou know the result, yeah anyway
.
So I've been watching as a kid.
And then, finally, this showcomes out and this is you know
and this is after I've beendoing video production- and it
just popularity boomed inAmerica like nobody's business.

(01:23:48):
So it's great.
And what's crazy is whichobviously I watched I'm not, I
would make it slightly different, but again they do really great
the way they edit it.
So good for them.
I mean, they're helping makethe sport I like popular.
So I'm not going to complain.
But what's crazy is what Iloved is watching behind the
scenes and they're shooting onthese FX6s, fx9s or whatever

(01:24:09):
FX3s the Zaxcom equipment theyhad.
The point was I was like Icould literally go and this is
years ago.
I was like I could literally goin my, in my storage unit and
right now shoot this thing.
Right, the equipment isn't theissue.
Plus, the passion is there.
I know all these drivers likeI'm following the sport yeah is
the.
The reason they got it isbecause they have the contacts,

(01:24:29):
or like, we're talking but Idon't have a contact in f1.
I have contacts somewhere else,but uh but anyway so to bring
it back together one day, yeah.
So my ideal, right now at least,dream gig if it would be
anything to do with formula one.
Obviously I love what I dotalking heads, you know
interview style, footage, b-roll, you know all the typical

(01:24:51):
corporate stuff that I I love todo.
But that's right, but yeah, butsomething to do with formula
one, like a documentary on Idon't know a driver or a team,
because you know Drive toSurvive is done.

So I don't want to repeat what they're
doing.
I thought they were doinganother season.

Yeah, they are.
What I'm saying is done as in.

it's already been done, like I'm not going to
copy what's already being made.

It's successful.
But what's crazy is I alreadyhave all the equipment.
I could literally make a showlike drive to survive same
quality, same everything, sameskillset.

You just don't have the access.
Yeah, I would love.

So plus also, the thing is, even if I got access,
I you know, if it was like, oh,funded myself, I'm not funding
it, that matters, I mean, it'sone day to fund would be if I
could go film something withFormula One with a good budget,
and I would like to makesomething like Drive to Survive.

(01:25:44):
But my vision, my style, that'dbe cool, so it'd be very
similar, but editing would becompletely different.
I don't like how they edit, howthey tell their stories.
They're very non-linear.
I don't know, that's just notmy style.

But yeah, but that would be awesome.
But again, this is ahypothetical I don't know in
formula one.
I doubt anyone is listening tothis, but if they are in formula
one, please, please, reach outto me.
You know I'll be your bts guyexactly.
I'll make you gotta take me,because I asked you the question
.
Only been doing this for what?

14 years now so I I think I know a little things
too.
I mean especially talking,especially talking head.
I've done it like 20,000 timesby now.
I could freaking light anydriver, like in my sleep.

Would you have the softbox and the grid in
the shot?

See again, it depends.
So it depends on the budget andthe time.
If you're like, hey, you've gotI don't know 30 minutes to set
up, right, because it depends onavailability too?

Then yes, this is my go-to setup right now
600x.
No, I'm saying would you haveit in the shot with the talking
head, because in that whenthey're doing interviews, no, I
would never do that, yeah, yousee it and I was like, well,
that's questionable, this islike a full setup it's been
doing weird things I've seen,which is fine.

Again, that's the creative aspect of it.
Some of the angles that they dotheir third angles is it's just
not something I would do, butthat's okay.

You know that's they're gonna do what
they want exactly exactly, andthat's what the creative thing
is.

I may do a third angle differently, so I I still
do that too.
I'll do two angles and then athird angle.
Um, anyway, point says yeah, Iwouldn't really do that and if
actually again I have more timeto set up, I'd probably do like
a frame and a book light type ofsetup.
Anyway, I wouldn't even havethe softbox.
Uh, again, I don't know howmuch time they get to set up and
all that would determine whichis the whole purpose behind the

(01:27:24):
van right, if you have to gomove quick, we can, and if we
have time to set up, we can.

You know, we can take both approaches no
one's going to pick this apart,unless we're in this industry to
normal people like man.
That's so cool look at thatthing.
Look at that fancy light.

Yeah, I'm like nah , I mean this is, I mean it's
good to be made again.
This setup has made me tons ofmoney because most time I do
corporate, you know talkingheads, because testimonials, uh,
you know brand videos, whatever, all essentially boils down to
some kind of b-roll and somekind of talking head.
Um, and a lot of times I'mgoing I've done this, by the way
12 to 15 interviews, one stop.

(01:28:01):
Do it there, literally take theequipment, pull out, set up,
interview out, next location,next setup.
So you gotta move quick and, uh, this setup is beautiful and
moves fast.
We don't have time to set uplike an eight by eight.
You know, make a book, light orwhatever.
We gotta move.
So a light dome 150 with a 600xis is so incredibly fast and
beautiful.

(01:28:21):
It's made me tons and tons ofmoney because I can, I can set
this up in like five, tenminutes at most, plus I like I
can bring anyone, 99 of peoplewill set this up what size is
that box?
uh, so this is what, uh, fivefoot, I believe, is the it's
pretty big.
Yeah it's, it's pretty good.
Uh, obviously not every officeis going to be big enough
sometimes they shove you infreaking tiny offices.

(01:28:42):
Then I like the f22c's becauseit's like two by two and it's
like this thick, you know,because that's what I was
looking at.
I got to play with it at theyeah, at the event and that's
really good for travel, and alsosometimes when you got to be
fast because you know it is whatit is again, um, it's all about
timing.
A lot of people may not watchthat.

(01:29:02):
That's why I'm saying, that'swhy I don't judge other people's
work, because, you know, maybelike oh, I could have done it.
You don't know what they had,yeah you also don't know the
time they had it's not theequipment, like, for example.
As you saw, equipment's not anissue, but if I only have 10
minutes versus I have 10, 10hours, obviously that's too much
, but you get my point and Iwill do things differently.

It also boils down to what Can you be
efficient enough with what thegear is providing At the end of
the day, it's all about workflow, the new workflow that you've
seen.

The whole idea is, literally, it saves me in
seconds.
Literally, this saves me.
It's not having to take thesticks out of bags, you know,
and the cameras out of bags.
That's all I'm trying to say.
So at this point I'm so to whatI do, efficient, that I'm
literally trying to save secondsbetween transitions so so this
is at this point like I've donethis so much that it's the idea

(01:29:55):
was oh, if I can have this cartalready ready to go, I can
already have the cameras on, andnow all I gotta do is press a
button, cameras out, and myprevious would have been zipper,
you know what I mean.
It's like it's terrible.
At this point I'm just tryingto just gain tiny efficiency
gains.
It's really hard to go that far.
At the end of the day, all I'mdoing is talking heads and

(01:30:15):
b-roll 80 time.
Now I do get to do some coolcommercials and sometimes some
indie movies, other stuff on theside which is more fun, I would
say documentary.
But most of corporate work istalking heads and um and some
kind of b-roll to go with it,and you have to become and
you'll usually be shoved in theugliest room with the ugliest

(01:30:37):
walls.
So being able to make that lookeven remotely good is where the
skills are.

I was going to say that's your problem
solving and trying to make itlook good, exactly.

And sometimes you have five minutes to discuss it,
like okay, here we are.
And you're like okay.
And then sometimes you peek, oh, that looks good, could we do
it here?
And sometimes they'll say no.
And then sometimes like, oh,the doctor's waiting or this CEO
is waiting.
It's like no, you got to do itin 10 minutes, or they're gone,
like this is it so?
Sometimes you can't even set upa light, You're just like, okay
, camera go.

(01:31:06):
We're going to make it workExactly Because, at the end the
content trumps shot, you know,or the lighting, or whatever,
but anyway, that's at least whatI'm chasing right now is just
how fast can I go to a location,set up a talking head and how
fast can that I pack it and goto a next location, cause very
rarely am I doing videos.
And I love those days.

(01:31:26):
You know I'm paying myself.
You know even whether I'mproduction company or helping
somebody, I'm paying by day rateto myself.
So whether it's 30 minutes orwhether it's 10 hours, I'm
getting paid the same.
So I love those days where it'sjust one talking head.
I've had that happen where it'slike okay, 10 minutes interview
, we're done, all right, that'sit.
So I love those days, butthey're rare.

(01:31:46):
Usually you take 10 people inthe video, so you got to go get
10 people and the only way youcan get that is by getting two
assistants me, that's my usualcrew size for that type of video
and then we're just rushinglike in, out in, out in.
Now we like we don't have timeto, and then, while so while I'm
packing up, I'll hand them liketwo gimbals with fx3, so two

(01:32:07):
fx6s for like a and b camera, uh, and then while we're doing
interview, I'll generally handsomeone an fx3 on handheld I
really like that third angle andI'll say, okay, that's my third
angle, two sticks and then, assoon as that gets okay, I'm
gonna pack all this while youguys grab these two fx3s on
gimbals and get me whateverb-roll, some b-roll got it so
while they're, my assistants aregetting b-roll.

(01:32:29):
I'm, I'm packing up.
Now we're in this next location.

Same thing, repeat, repeat, repeat I guess
when they're done, you're done,let's roll.

Yeah, next one got it so now maybe if I can load
up much faster, maybe I can alsohelp with b-roll.
Generally I'm so busy I'msaying these type of videos, not
all, yeah, um, I just get totell them, hey, this is the type
of shots I want, and then theyjust go, have to get it for,
especially with b-roll, I alwaystake care of a-roll, um.
But you know so, if I have moretime maybe I can be more, more

(01:32:59):
involved and stuff like that.
We'll see.
That's at least the.
I hope that makes sense.
What I'm trying to get to is,at this point I'm just trying to
gain minutes.
So it may sound crazy tosomeone else, but that's at
least what I'm trying to do no,but you're also being efficient.
Yeah, and I think if you'rebeing efficient.

It's also going to become easier as well,
and because that's what I like,everyone likes that yeah see,
I'm the crazy idiot becauseeveryone I meet it's funny.

I just had this conversation yesterday with a
buddy who's just hanging out nota podcast and he was just like
you know, um, all I want to dois do corporate stuff so I can
make money, so I can go makeindie movies, right, or
something like that.
And I'm like I just want tomake corporate.
I like this, I live and breathevideo production and if I can
go make other people money anddo filmmaking at the same time,

(01:33:48):
why wouldn't I?
Obviously, like we talked about, sure, a formula one
documentary would be a great gig.
Ideally, I'm happy where I'm at.
I just need to just become moreand more efficient at this and
be able to scale this.
And I'm happy where I'm at.
I just need to just become moreand more efficient at this and
be able to scale this.
And I I'm starting to figureout again.
I need a mentor.
I need to find people where.
How do I now keep scaling this,because I feel like it's

(01:34:10):
getting harder to scale what I'mdoing, you know I'm already.

Do you have like a number one like go-to guy
, like when?
Uh, I guess maybe this dependson the job, but do you have
someone that you call more thanoften to go back and forth with
on things?

No, I'm always calling people that I know I've
done a specific job like thatwith, because, to be honest, at
this point, like I said, all I'mdoing is talking head and be
real.
So sometimes literally thehardest thing is okay.
So I need to do this in newyork.
I don't want to fly there likelet me get somebody local to do
it, but then who is my guy therethat I trust to get what it

(01:34:50):
should look like?
I would right, yeah, so it'smore like that.
And then sometimes it's like,oh, I want to go there, okay, so
then then it's fine, now whatam I bringing with me?
So it's like it's more likethat.
You have to just decide money.
It's like something.
It's like puppet masters, whatyou become when I'm producing.
Uh, that's what I'm saying.
The fun I have is on otherpeople's gigs where you're like,
hey, come on my set now I don'thave stress.

(01:35:10):
All I'm doing is this is what Igotta do, and when I leave,
whatever I get paid this profit,there's no cost per se.
I Maybe gas a little bit, butusually if that's outside of
Orlando they'll be paid too.
But the point I'm trying tomake is it's a pure profit.
It may not be a lot, but it'sstill some money, good money.
But on the other side I'm notstressed.
Now I can be creative.

Which is a huge thing.

Yeah, exactly, and you need a balance of that.
For Evile I only did first likeI was freelancer, then I did
only producer stuff and itquickly got boring.
So last two years I've beendoing now a healthy balance and
I found, at least for me, thisis what works like.
As long as I can make money domy own gigs, then I can balance
it with helping other people andbeing able to be creative and

(01:35:54):
help them at the same time.
I think I'm happy okay, yeah,so that's essentially kind of.

I love the helping part also because I feel
very heavy into that as well.

Yeah, because I'm the stupid, like I said, because
my advice to everyone is don'tbuy equipment because it doesn't
have the ROI.
Since now I'm the idiot who hasbought all this.
Anyone, at least I know, mightas well use it and take
advantage of it.
Like, before you showed up, Iliterally had a friend here
who's like, hey, I need an FX3.
I got a gig showed up, can Iget that?
And a gimbal and an ND filter.
I'm like, here you go, here'sthe cart.

(01:36:24):
There you go and he gets thething, He'll return tomorrow.
I get some rental money out ofit, a couple hundred bucks.
You know why am I going tocomplain.

You know I'm making money.

And it so might as well let other people benefit
from it, that's what I'm saying.
So I've been doing this for twoyears now this new thing where
I'm doing both and it's workedout great, so I'm not
complaining.
So I guess I'm going to justtry and continue doing this and
just get more efficient, getbetter.
I want to work with more newpeople.

(01:36:55):
Again, I love working witheveryone I know already, but I
want to again expand my eyes andbe on different type of sets,
see what else is there toexplore and learn.
That's that's kind of what I'mtrying to do now.
It's just I found that that'skind of corporate limit, you
know, uh, again talking handb-roll, and then commercials get
cool, but there's only so manycommercials.

(01:37:17):
Yeah, I get fit in the schedule.
Uh, same thing withdocumentaries, uh let alone.

Is it even worth going?
Yeah, profit, is it somethingfun?
Yeah, it depends on set bill.

I mean I love uh.
One thing I did dabble on a lotlast past year was the and it
was set building with thesecommercials.
So, like you know, working withdifferent set builders and
building fancy sets and stuff,that's pretty cool, but again
same thing.
It's like I want to do it abalance of everything.
I guess I don't want to do onething over and over again yeah,
it's boring.

(01:37:47):
That's why I love what I'm doing, because I'm yeah all different
which is what I was going toask you.
So how do you make it different?
Because if you know you'redoing, let's say, power sports
after a while, isn't this?
And I know obviously there'snuance to each equipment, but to
me that looks the same.

So how do you ?
be creative and make it lookdifferent, or the power sports
is actually pretty cookie cutterthat one is on its own thing
and that job in particular doesget a little bit on the boring
side, but I try to change it.
And now it's actually become anew thing because I'm trying to
do a YouTube thing myself.
Like hey, like, not necessarilya content creator, but like

(01:38:24):
look, I'm an average Joe.
I picked up a camera, I learnedhow to do it.
I'm making good money.
Come watch me do this.
So now that job specificallyhas turned into an opportunity
to show other people like hey, Ican do this, why can't you?
The fun aspect of that job is Iget to rip on the side-by-sides

(01:38:46):
.
We go out, or sometimes I takeit out in the woods and there's
a spot that I take it to shootand then there's a trail out
there.
I can go ride around and havesome fun.
But that one is stale,especially summertime when it's
110 degrees outside and I'moutside taking videos or
pictures of units.
That is terrible.

Florida heat will get you.

Outside of that, it's a fun job.
Grain of salt.
My other jobs, though, so mygun manufacturer job.
One day I'm shooting guns thathaven't been released.
I'm shooting models that theydon't know if they're going to
release it.
I'm shooting someone elseshooting it.

(01:39:27):
It could blow up.
It's a test model or prototype.
We don't know what's going tohappen.
I'm there capturing it.
If it does blow up, homie'shand's also blown up.
What's going to happen?
Yeah, I'm there capturing it.
If it does blow up, homie'shands also blown up, I'm going
to be there to capture it.
I'll probably also be callingan ambulance for him because his
hand's gone.
But uh, I get to do a bunch ofreally cool stuff.
I was just with uh, I'm not Iwas going to say his name, but I

(01:39:51):
probably shouldn't.
I was just with a nine-yearranger sniper guy.
He was telling some wildstories, um, the things he's
done and the things I found outabout him afterwards.
It was kind of mind-blowingthat I was with somebody like
that I would have never known,and I mentioned his name to a

(01:40:11):
buddy and he's like oh, dude,he's like you're with that guy.
Like that's insane.
Do you know the people he knowsand the things he's done.
I was like, no, tell me aboutit.
And I was kind of shocked.
And come to find out he does.
I'm not gonna say that he, uh,he wants me to come shoot some
more stuff for him, so that isreally cool.
He's got a, a ranch essentially, where they shoot guns out of

(01:40:34):
side-by-sides and out ofhelicopters and they.
I don't know if I'm going to beone of his main media guys, but
it seems like I could havepotential to be that guy.
That's pretty cool.
I don't know where I'm going topuzzle that into my nine to
five.
Monday through Friday.
That's not really nine to five,but I can promise you one thing

(01:40:55):
If he says, hey, I need youhere Saturday, I'm going to go
work Saturday Cause if I can bein a helicopter while they're
blasting whatever they'reblasting targets pigs is that
the word?
Say a 10, 10, 10.

Yeah, what is this ?
Isn't that the thing that theyuse when they shoot dude?

that blows up um.

They call it tannerite or oh, yeah, yeah, the
targets, the target correct,yeah, yeah um, I'm pretty
positive.

That's the name of it yeah they, they shoot
I don't have access.
They shoot a whole bunch ofcrazy stuff and while I was
there I probably saw like 40different guns and they're all
shooting them.
I did learn the hard way thatyour ear muffs.
They don't work if they're uphere.

Yeah.

And when you're trying to listen to
people talk, because you don'thave the fancy ones that have
the speakers in them and theyonly go quiet when you shoot.
I learned real quick.

Yeah, you don't want to lose your hearing.

If you're in a shooting range that's roughly
five foot wide and six foot tall, just enough for you to stand
in there and shoot.
If that thing is not where itneeds to be, your ears will be
bleeding and it is the worstpain I've ever experienced.
They weren't really bleeding,but they should have been.
It was terrible, but I stuck tothe shot.

No, that's why I don't do indoors, I only
outdoors, because for me, likeyou said, the echo also is just
I outdoors, because for me that,just like you said, the echo
also is just I don't know, Idon't know, this was just a test
range, so and they're like heylet's.

We want some footage of us shooting this gun.
I was like, all right, cool,I'm in.
Uh, I'll never make thatmistake again if that guy calls
me, I'll either a quit, aretainer client yeah, or I will
be there whatever hour he wantsme to be there, because that was
one of the cooler experiencesI've ever experienced yeah,
that's pretty cool.

Uh sounds a little unsafe, but hey, I mean, as
long as they're there, they havesome safety around that it will
be they actually had.

They implemented a lot of things.
Uh I, he turned around andlooked at me.
Uh, the other one, and he waslike, hey, you're ready.
And I was like, hey, I'm ready.
And the other shots we shot he.
He made sure I had them on.
I guess he probably saw them on, but they just weren't on
correct.
And as soon as he realized Iwas not standing next to him
anymore, he stopped.
He apologized like a billiontimes, like you being new to

(01:43:06):
guns, like that's on me.

Yeah, which I mean ?
But in the end, yeah, I meanthey take the care, you know you
learn.

Yeah, I mean, they care.

You learn too.
Yeah, you want to buy the goodstuff.
I'm going to buy my own.

Yeah, I'm going to buy my own just for
future.
And it's hard to kind of directwhile having headphones on and
also listening to them.
I learned that too.

Yeah, you got to put an earpiece in and then put
it on top.

Yeah, A general contractor.
It's something differentWhether it's a house from a
murder scene that just got burntdown and the family was just
murdered in there the day beforewe got there, which that
happened.
That's interesting.
Yeah, we see some crazy thingsto just mold, infestation

(01:43:51):
hoarders and things that need tobe completely ground leveled
and brought back up, and he getsreally cool stuff.
Obviously, he gets boring jobs,like AC jobs, whatever we shoot
that too, though, becausepeople need to see that he also
does that.
It's just something new everyday, and it's if we're not
shooting, we're shopping forcouches because his mom made a

(01:44:13):
new couch and his mom's kind ofelderly and she's like hey,
where go?
and he's like dude, I forgot youwere coming.
And I was like all right, well,I guess we'll go shop for
gouges together.
So, hey, you're getting paid.

Yeah, exactly this sounds incredible, I mean and
that's what I want people toknow I mean, taking aside your
opinion on guns, you're, you'reout there, you're recording cool
stuff, right, and you'regetting paid for it.
That's incredible, I'm having ablast.
People aren't like think outsidethe box, it's not just also
corporate, like indirectly it's,I guess, corporate or

(01:44:45):
influencer stuff.
But the point is you can goshoot like, make videos about
people shooting guns or testingguns or whatever, and make a
living doing that.
That's incredible.
You're still a videographer.
You're just doing that nicheand I don't know.
I find that very incrediblethat you found this and then

(01:45:06):
you're doing good in that andyou're doing such little
equipment and you're doing sucha good job at it.
I mean hats off to you they'reeating it up, so I'm gonna keep
doing it, yeah, and then I hopeand I'm sure there's lots of
other industries like that thatwe're not thinking about right
now, where you, you, that isexactly what they need to.

(01:45:28):
They need someone to come in andand record whatever cool crap
that they're doing there, soyeah so people you know think
outside the box, like find yourpassion and then find you know
another hobby that you like andsee if you can combine that.
So if your passion is to makevideos and your hobby is to I
don't know skateboard, right,how can you connect that?
I mean, that may be too manypeople.

(01:45:52):
But there's so many other thingslike that that you may not even
connect um and like, like said,like I'm thinking, like on my
end, like, oh, formula one, andyou never know like that may
happen.

So it's like it's true but but that's
incredible that there's so manyopportunities out there would
you do uh like any car oranything like that, or would it,
more specifically, need to bef1?

but I would, I've been, I would definitely it.
I've done car stuff before.

Okay, so like dealerships and stuff.

So I would happily do car stuff.
But I'm saying Formula One isFormula One, there's no Indy.
I don't want to disappoint any.

Indy fans.
But Indy is not Formula One,let's not get.

We'll start a controversy today.
I mean, let's not get our headover ourselves.

All your comments are going to be about
F1 in India and not where itneeds to be.
Yeah, exactly, not about cameraor sales or video production.

But no, there's not even remote competition.
I don't think so either.

My neighbor is a big F1 guy, but there's one
Indy race, indy 500.

I don't know what it is.
Yeah, Daytona race 8500.

I don't know what it is.
Yeah, daytona.
Yeah, he goes nuts about.
It's a full day thing, likefull cookout, everything.

He's like yep, really, I'm dedicating my day to
this, but he also dedicatesevery f1 race to everyone, and
that's what he does thathappened to me a long time ago,
when people found out like thissomething eight, nine years,
whatever but they were like, oh,you're into car, at least we
gotta go to daytona one time.
You know, I was like no, no, no, I'm fine, it's not the same
thing.
Now I would love to go toFormula One event, but at the
same time again you haven't beento one.

(01:47:20):
No, cause I don't want to be,say again, the way I want to go
is different.
If I't want to do that andmaybe this is me, I'd rather now

(01:47:45):
I will go happily if I am withyou on that you know I can be
part of the, and then they dosell tickets, but they're very
expensive part of the paddockand all that.
That is what I'm more intriguedby, because, you know, to me
that's not but you could go dothat, then go home and watch.
Yeah, exactly or I'm, and thenif I'm there, obviously I'll
watch it.
I mean because I'll have myphone, I can, or I'm sure they
have screens there too what'ssomething, so you can hear

(01:48:07):
everything yeah, exactly, um,plus the thing.
The other thing is I'm biasedbecause I grew up again watching
the, the, the British uhpresentation of it.
I don't like the Americancommentary, so, uh, so I watch
it on, uh, um, f1 TV or whateverit's called.
Right, I've?
I pay for subscription, and soyou what?

(01:48:27):
The only reason I do that isthey give you option.
You can watch the default, uh,the default option, and then you
can go to international, whichis the Sky Sports or BBC,
whatever.
Yeah, yeah yeah.
And that's what I've beenwatching.

The Sky Box or whatever it's called.

Yeah, since again, since I was a kid.
So I just want to listen tothose people.
And that presentation.
I don't want to listen to theF1 TV presentation, whatever.

Gotcha.
So I'm pretty sure when inperson they'll be doing that
presentation which, when inperson, they'll be doing that
presentation, which is I mean,it's the same the presentation
you don't want to hear.

Yeah, it's just the commentary, and some
graphics may be different.
It's not a lot, but what I'mgetting to is yes, I would love
to go, but it would have to bemore than just sit in a
grandstand and watch the race.
It would have to be bigger andthose tickets tend to be
typically expensive.
But at some point One day Iwill stop spending money on vans
and video equipment and I willhave some extra cash to do that.

Flip side the van, rent it enough.
Pay for that.
Exactly, you get the full tripset up.

Go tell all your friends, hey, if they want it.

I'm free, let's do it.

Again, they have to have gigs, obviously, that
are worth the need.
I mean, forget the van.
I mean just the talking headwould be worth it.
But and I mean, forget the van,I mean just the talking head
would be worth it.
But they would have to havewhere they need it and they have
a budget with the client thatexpects that.
Because if your client expectsa pocket, you show up with this.
That's also a negativeexperience.
It's one thing they'reexpecting a good setup and you
bring a better setup, that's agood experience.

(01:49:48):
But if they're expecting nosetup and you bring a big, huge
setup, a big, huge setup, that'salso yeah, you know.
So we don't want to do that, soyou would have to obviously
have a set where they'reexpecting.

I will save for the record most, actually
all jobs.
Uh, I do show up with my a7s3build out.
It's a cineback setup.
It looks very similar to an fx6.
The normal person wouldn't knowthe difference they just see a
big old camera set up.
The v-mount, the big monitor,handle everything.
They're like man.
That thing's incredible.
It's just an a7s3, which not todiscredit the camera, because

(01:50:23):
it's incredible for what it isyeah, um.
But as time goes on, I shootand I shoot and then I pull the
pocket out.
I'm like, oh, what's thatlittle thing?
And I'm like just let me shootfor once and then I'll shoot
with it.
I'm like, dude, I, I couldn'ttell a difference and I was like
you're blind.
First of all, yeah, um, but theturnaround time with it can be

(01:50:46):
same day.
I just bluetooth it right overmy phone bada, bing, bada, boom.
You can even throw it up in capcut.
I don't know if anyone's usingcap cut, but for small, quick
little edits.
It's pretty gross how fast youcan make something that will wow
a client that thinks that youjust did that and it's just a
pre-made template and I I don'twant to push cap cut yeah, but
for some people that's it works,it works I

I've grown again.
A few years ago you had met me.
I was a little snobbish, or Iwas like no it has to be done
this way.
Now I'm like, I accept it.
That the truth ever since.
Like first, when tiktok cameout, I was like to me it was
blasphemy to make your phonevertical and now I will gladly
do that.
So it took me a few years to getaround it.
The.
The thing is you have to againlike, say, you have to evolve,
and that's where the short, thecell phone content, was going

(01:51:32):
vertical and I just initiallydidn't want to accept it.
But hey, again the client makesyou money, the client makes
money, and that's theexpectation on social media,
which is why I try to aim for,you know, the, the stuff that
needs to be higher quality, thatthey're sharing on you know,
either commercials or on ontheir websites or wherever where

(01:51:56):
it's not going to be lived fora few hours or a few days, you
know at most.
So you know, and if I do needsocial media content, which we
do from time to time, I'll bringsomeone who's more you know
akin to wanting to do that yeah,yeah and, and it's not like I
couldn't do it, I just it's justnot my thing not your thing.

yeah, and it's funny because I shoot all
this fun stuff and I have thebest day ever every time I go to
work.
I actually want to learn moreof what you do, not necessarily.

you See, this is funny In one set I just said I
wouldn't do it.
But then I'm like testing a newgun where his hand could blow
up.
That sounds pretty gnarly but,pretty I don't know fun.
So I'm saying it's a fun thing.
In one way I'm like I'm gonnado it.
But then on the other side I'mlike if I have to hold a pocket
three to get that, I don't knowI would.

(01:52:40):
I mean you know, because, like Isaid, on one side my brain is
like I would never, but then I'mlike, if that's the client
requires and that's where thecool shoot is, then I was gonna
say next thing you know you'rein a helicopter, hanging out of
it with a little pocket three.
I'm in yeah, people get I.
I am willing to do a lot, aslong as look for the right shot,
I I'm willing to go yeah, farfar, you know, as long as you

(01:53:03):
would be the one that they wantthe pocket three.

No, like listen, let me just.
Let me just do it one time,just let me use my real stuff
one time, you're like yeah, I'dbe the opposite.

Yeah, one time we can, we can do a talking head.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but yeah, no,not for social media.
I'm all.
I completely agree with you,like it's overkill to be setting
up lights and stuff.
It's gonna live for 10 minutesyou know, people's feed and
they're gone.
You know, because again toomuch content too much noise yeah
, you don't want to spend hoursand hours and hours making that
that it makes sense, sense toget the content out now.

(01:53:35):
Yeah, then Also when it'srelevant.

Yeah, exactly when it's relevant, so no hats
off to what you're doing.

Like I said, and what I love is that we're both
making money and we're bothdoing similar but yet very
different things.
And you've kind of opened myeyes because I kind of knew what
you were doing because wetalked about it.
Yeah, and you've kind of openedmy eyes because I kind of knew
what you were doing because wetalked about it, but not to hear
more in depth.
I'm like this is so incredible,man, like you've built yourself
a kind of tiny little empirewhere I think people need to

(01:54:04):
hear about this.
So I hope more people, a lot ofpeople, will watch this and
kind of alternate, alternateoption.

Like hey here .

Here's what you can do, and you don't need any
equipment.
You don't need anything else.
Uh, but before we wrap this up,I wanted to open this up again.
Any other questions you had forme or anything else you want to
add?
Um?

I mean, honestly, my biggest thing was
to uh see what you, what yourdream thing was, Cause obviously
you've worked with somehigh-end clients.
I learned that, um, during thegroup or the whatever meeting,
the network meeting, I just Ididn't know.
I also I never really knew ofyou outside of david's network

(01:54:44):
thing and you don't see anythingthat you do on your social
media.
So I was like, oh, it's just adude that has a video.

Has a?

van, now that I know about, and, uh, he does
video like everybody else, I dothe same thing, that's cool.
But now that I'm here and, uh,he does video like everybody
else, I do the same thing,that's cool.
But now that I'm here and yourandomly hit me up, I was like
man, this guy doesn't know me.
Like, yeah, I'm not the normalvideo.
Yeah, no, that's.

And we talked, so I kind of knew what you were
doing.
That's why I was interested whenwe, you mentioned the, the
whole gun thing.
I was like, oh, that'sdifferent, right, uh, but I
didn't know in this depth, like,uh, you know what exactly how
you do it and what your, yourprocess is, uh, but no, and that
same thing.
You know, I'm I'm so bad at itagain.
So when I initially started theproduction company, I was all
about, you know, like tryingeverything like here's ads,

(01:55:25):
here's social media, here's this.
Then I quickly realized thatthe best way at least I was
getting clients at the time wasthese people are not again.
I don't know now, know now, butat that time, six, seven years
ago, they were not on Instagram,they were not on Facebook.
These people were on golfcourses, rich people right so
they're talking to each other.
They're not going to Facebook orInstagram or Google to find the

(01:55:46):
recommendation like theirclients are.
My clients were talking to eachother.
So my thing was I'm going to doa good job, I'm going to be
honest and I'm gonna kill it.
And generally I got referralsand I started to get more and
more.
So I was like, oh, so my salesstrategy is very simple.
I just have to do a good job,which I love anyway and rich
people talk to rich.
Yeah, exactly, so I don't evenhave to tell anyone either.

(01:56:08):
So I don't ask for reviews, Idon't tell them, I just like,
hey, I wow them.
Like I said I told earlier, I'mokay, so we're going to do this
project, this many people, thismuch, this, and then I'll
always do more.
I'll wow them.
You know big lights, big setups.
Then the video obviously needsto match what they were
expecting and exceed theirexpectations.
And I just found that peoplewere like, oh, hey, my buddy or

(01:56:31):
this person recommended you.
So so many times people call meand they're like, oh, you know,
we heard about you from this.
I'm like, who?
Oh, okay, that client, okay so,or that person I just met,
maybe they're not even a client.
I just met them at a networkingevent and they were so
impressed that I guess theyrecommended me.
But the point is which ended upkind of hurting me avenues of

(01:56:54):
advertising, because I'm likewell, why do I need to post on
social media?
Plus, I'm busy and lazy at bothat the same time.
So ended up kind of justpigeonholing myself into just do
good, more work.
And obviously through David,like you said, where we met, he
knew it because I've hired him acouple of times, so he's seen

(01:57:14):
my gigs right, and I think heposted about it, which was also
incredible.
That's what got me on the ideathat I should be on social media
, because it was a very uniqueidea of hiring.
I never thought about his blogwhen I hired him, but then when
he posted it, I saw it and I waslike this is a completely
different perspective.
Right, because I hired him,because I saw his vlog that he

(01:57:38):
can handle a c70 or whatever atthe time I needed him to handle.
But then on the other side of itI was like, oh, this is what he
thought about my gig and thisis how, on the secondary, it
looks.
And I was like, oh, this is avery unique perspective.
So I value social media morenow and I want to post more and
hopefully maybe I'll bring insomebody in or personally try to
be more active to to post more.

(01:58:00):
But that's kind of where mymindset has been and I don't
know if it's correct, but atleast I was like, oh, I'm
getting work yeah, you know yeahnone of these people are on
Instagram, but now that I thinkabout it, I'm sure there were
some maybe not these that wereon Instagram, that never
approached me because they neverknew about me, right?
Yeah, so yeah, and seeingdavid's perspective, I'm like we

(01:58:20):
, I need to do more.
Um, at least put our work outthere.
But because a lot of the stuffis ndas, that's what annoys me a
lot and I don't want to not getthose jobs, because yeah that's
.

I've got some cool stuff.
I've actually really big storyis I I don't know if it was
really a thirty thousand dollarshot that I blew, oh really, oh
yeah I remember you mentioningyeah, tell us that towards the
end, but I want to hear thatstory again uh, a company sent
me for their first uh launch.
Because I'm over there by spacecoast, I know a bunch of the

(01:58:55):
engineers, rocket guys, and Ihappen to have a buddy that is
high up in a company and he'slike, hey, he's like, what are
you doing on this day?
And I was like I don't know whyyou're asking me that, but I
will be free whatever day yougive me, because I guarantee you
it's going to be somethingbadass.
He's like, yeah it, so if yougot anything, cancel it.

(01:59:23):
Luckily it was a day I didn'thave anything.
And next thing I know he saidhey, I need you at taiko airport
.
You're gonna go to the whateverjet it's called.
Two helicopters come and pick meup.
Well, two helicopters came.
Obviously I went one.
There's another really bigspace photographer that was in
the other one.
He's listen, I want you tocapture our first launch.
I was like all right, sweet,easy.
I shoot a lot of photos.
It's a rocket, it can't be thathard, it doesn't go off Sweet.
I've now been in a helicopterfor three, four hours.

(01:59:45):
I didn't realize how cold it isin a helicopter, flew back,
went up again.
It was like T minus 10, 9, 8, 8, and it gets to point like
three uh, it starts to go andthen it aborts last second I got
some banging photos.

Uh, I think I'm not the one you're talking about
, like the smoke's going off.

It looks super sick, doesn't go off.
They're like, hey, it's gonnago off on this date at midnight
and I was like dude nighttime.
I was like I don't do nighttimestuff, let alone helicopter
nighttime stuff.

You're doing this with what a7s3?

that was uh a7s4 or this was a7IV.
I'm sorry yeah, because I do alot of photo stuff also.
So this or it's essentially myb camera, but also hybrid
shooter.
So I got an a7IV and uh, Iforgot I borrowed for this
specific one.
Uh, ace a seven, r four and Ihad a 200 to 600.

(02:00:40):
Come to find out, those twocombined the autofocus is
atrocious.
Um, I blew the shot A.
I have shot, shot uh, rocketsbefore it's brighter than the
sun.
So I focus or I put my shutterat like 2,500, because usually
when I'm shooting out indaylight, iso 100, shutter speed

(02:01:02):
2,500, I can adjust prettyquickly.
You only have a couple seconds.
But I was like, listen, thisshould be where it's at.
This particular rocket puts outa blue fire and it is not
bright.
And so the helicopter pilotsare like it's going, it's going,
I don't see, I can't seeanything.
And by the time I got it lockedin it was already too far up

(02:01:23):
and I blew it and my buddy'slike yo, like how'd it go?
I was like, uh, yeah, we'll seeif uh, topaz photo, try to fix
it.
Nah, it was done so wow, that'scrazy.
So basically the autofocusscrewed you over and that, that
at least in my I was exposingfor to be like daylight, bright,
like a normal rocket would be,and that was not the case.

(02:01:47):
And so I'm looking through thelittle ev and I'm five miles out
in the air.
I didn't mention that I had anew pilot.
He was trying to learn how towhatever, and it was shaking me
like crazy.
The previous pilot he knew to.
Once we got to the location,essentially just let it float,

(02:02:09):
let the wind just carry it.
We're only going to be therefor a minute If we go away, if
we go towards not a big deal.
This pilot was trying to fightit and stay like gps locked
manually.
So the helicopter's going oncrazy.
I can't find what I'm trying toshoot and essentially I blew it
and but thankfully I reportedto my buddy.
I was honest with him.
He's like listen, he's likewe're launching again 2026,

(02:02:31):
maybe 25.
He's like you'll be in thathelicopter too and I was like
all right, I'm here for it.
So awesome.

So just so I make sure you were the only one, they
were they had again in ahelicopter.
Yes, uh, so they had groundphotographers, just not anyone
in the helicopter okay.

So, uh, the first two attempts it was myself
and another gentleman thatanything space related,
especially spacex that you see,like their main guy if you know
who that is, that's who was inthe other helicopter.
When it came to the night one,he opted out.
He said I'm not doing thehelicopter, he knows, that's all
he shoots.
He shoots one thing, one thingonly.

(02:03:07):
He is a master wizard, whateveryou want to call him.
He still, to this day, istaking the coolest photos of
that launch, but all from theground.
He knew better, I didn't, butthey used his nighttime photos.
He got some incredible photos.
I almost actually got thecalendar from him just because I
thought it was cool and it waslike kind of a memory thing for

(02:03:29):
me, like, hey, I was there forthat, mine didn't.
They look like crap, it is whatit is.
He got his.
He knew what he was doing.
I didn't, but again, that'sexperience.
If I had known better, Iprobably wouldn't win.

That's really awesome of them to say like, hey
, you're gonna, you're gonna beback and we're gonna, we're
gonna let you do yeah it's again, I mean that's, that's, I mean,
I mean that's exactly it was.
It's rare, but that's what youwant to hear, right, you want
another shot at it?
Um, well, that's pretty cool,though.
I mean rockets are cool.
I was up in, uh, nasa too.
Uh, just a few months ago up inthe space center kennedy.

(02:04:02):
Um yeah, yeah yeah, and that'sbefore.
I don't know if this is thesame launch, but that's when
they were going to launch thewhat is polaris done or what was
the one is it 3d printed?
Uh-huh, I don't know.
There was some.
It's been a while, six monthsago for for my production I have
like three, four projects goingon a week.

It's too old for me to remember, yeah but.

But there was a rocket, I'm saying that was
going to launch.
That was a big deal.
So I don't know if that was thethe one.

No, no, probably you're talking about
the rocket lab one.
Uh, it's a 3d printer, 3dprinted rocket.
It's the largest 3D printedrocket that's been produced.

I don't keep up that much, but yeah, that was
pretty cool though, being thereand looking at the rockets that
are about to be launched and thewhole Artemis mission and all
that location.
It was pretty cool to be inside.
It's been a few years sinceI've been in there.

It's pretty cool what they do out there.
It's pretty cool, but that outthere.

It's pretty cool, but that's so cool that you got
that opportunity.
Obviously it's kind of blue,but that happens.
Hopefully next time.
Now you know you'll becapturing If it's a daytime
launch.

I'll be golden If it's a nighttime
launch.
I'm still going to go for itagain, going to use a little bit
different setup, but you learnfrom your mistakes and you won't
make it again or you shouldn'tanyway.

So that's pretty neat, man, I'm excited.

I'm happy with it.

Again.
Thank you, justin.
I really appreciate you forcoming out and talking and
taking the time out of your day.

I know you came straight after the shoot,
so I really appreciate it and I,I really appreciate it and I
appreciate you inviting me.

Of course you're welcome, man.
This has been incredible.
I've learned so much andhopefully some other people find
value in this like I said thatyour journey is incredible.
Um, I would recommend talk to alawyer, get some contracts in
but again, you don't have to.

If it works, I mean it works, but protect
yourself.
I have done contracts for otherjobs, if I didn't mention that
I no.

No, no, you're fine, just my normal guys.

I don't but new guys, previous guys.

When I used to shoot weddings, I did things
like that yeah, but I think whatyou're doing in general is
incredible, I mean I appreciateit.
Uh, you, you found youralternate path and you've done
it all by yourself.
That's what, to me, is amazingyeah so again, thank you for
coming.
You're welcome to come backanytime, man.
I really appreciate you.
Yeah, thank you so much thankyou.

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